Shorthanded and stumbling at home, Arizona State (13-15, 4-13) ran into a buzzsaw behind the arc, as No. 25 Brigham Young (20-8, 11-7) handed the Sun Devils their eighth-straight home loss, 91-81, on Wednesday night.
The visitors lit up Desert Financial Arena with 17 3-pointers, and the under-manned Sun Devils simply couldn’t keep up. Running a seven-man rotation, and suffering more injuries along the way, ASU felt doomed from the start. Senior forward Basheer Jihad led the team with 19 points, while freshman guard Joson Sanon added 18 points of his own. Sanon and Jihad both played all 40 minutes in the game.
Down several starters and with a short bench, head coach Bobby Hurley was still proud of the effort his team gave.
“It’s not easy, so again I give them a lot of credit and respect for not mailing it in,” Hurley said of his team. “Not putting their head down and feeling sorry for themselves. I thought we did the best we could … We had guys playing who haven’t really played much and aren’t in these roles or haven’t been all year. That’s just the circumstances we’re in. But they all stepped up and they gave us something and they fought again.”
The Sun Devils once again fell behind early, as the Cougars jumped to a 21-11 lead in the first six minutes. Brigham Young looked unconscious from 3-point range in the early going. Junior guard Richie Saunders and senior guard Trevin Knell teamed up for nine of BYU’s ten 3-pointers in the first half.
ASU, thin enough already with injuries, found a way to make things harder on themselves. Five turnovers and an 11-16 free throw effort kept the Sun Devils in the rearview mirror. To make matters worse, redshirt senior guard Adam Miller was helped off the floor twice after colliding with BYU players. The second of which came as Miller and BYU freshman forward Kanon Catchings went for a loose ball. Catchings jumped and fell into Miller, who struggled to walk off the floor with assistance. After leaving with 11:53 left in the first half, Miller did not return until the start of the second half.
Trying to crawl back into the game, Bobby Hurley turned to both a familiar and unfamiliar face: his son, senior guard Bobby Hurley Jr., and freshman guard Trevor Best, who joined the team last month.
Best put forth an effort worthy of more minutes in the future. In his first meaningful minutes, the young freshman contributed seven points in the first half, including a big three from the top of the key. He also added a steal that led to more points in transition.
“He was a bright spot,” Hurley said. “That kid was in high school in December and then got to us. He hasn’t had a lot of time to really adjust to being here and play at this level. So that was certainly a bright spot.”
“He just took advantage of his opportunity,” Miller said of his newest teammate. “I’m just proud of the kid because it’s not easy to go out and do that. It’s not easy to go out there and do exactly what he did. So I’m just proud of the kid. I made sure I told him too.”
Brigham Young took a 47-37 lead into the break. The main concern for the Sun Devils moving into the second half: Will they have enough stamina in the tank running with just seven players?
Miller returned to start the second half and knocked down a pair of threes. His return proved to be short-lived, however, as he limped off the floor for a third time with 13:09 to play. He didn’t return and finished with 11 points in the evening.
“I took that knee right off my hip where there’s not a lot of muscle in that area,” Miller said, referring to his injury. “I was having muscle spasms. It was hurting at the time … I probably had like two, three, four more threes in me, I’m not gonna lie, but coach said shut it down.”
Sanon took the point guard responsibilities the rest of the way, orchestrating the offense to some success. He scored 18 points and added four assists. Sanon played well alongside Best, despite the barrage of BYU threes on the other end. Best finished with 18 points and two steals in the contest.
In the end, the Sun Devils did not have the stamina to keep up with the shooting prowess of the Cougars. BYU knocked down 17-of-34 attempts from long range.
Saunders finished with 26 points and six makes from beyond the arc. Trevin Knell also hit five threes and had 18 points. The Cougars average 10.7 3-pointers per game this season, ninth-best in the country. Whenever the Sun Devils began to build some momentum, BYU hit another three to silence the ASU crowd.
Much of the second half was a back-and-forth affair, but it missed that feeling. BYU’s prowess from long range cast a shadow over a valiant effort from the shorthanded Sun Devils. ASU trailed by double-digits throughout the second half, as the heavy BYU crowd on hand made Desert Financial Arena its home. Brigham Young closed out the 91-81 win, sinking ASU for its eighth straight loss at home.
“It really is depressing, honestly,” Miller said. “Not taking care of home court, man. You want to give the fans a reason to come here every day. We didn’t do that.”
“I’m scared to wake up tomorrow,” Hurley admitted. “I hope I wake up tomorrow, I think I will, but I’m scared to see what tomorrow brings.”
The Sun Devils will attempt to regroup and travel to Salt Lake City on Saturday to take on Utah 5 p.m. MST.
Leave a Reply