TEMPE – With a steady demeanor, Arizona State senior guard Moe Odum didn’t panic after having the ball poked away from him. Instead, he calmly collected the loose ball and floated a pass to his 7-foot-1 freshman center, Massamba Diop, who, with outstretched arms, snatched the pass out of the air and exploded for a rim-shaking slam dunk.
The moment encapsulated the offensive play of the Sun Devils on Tuesday night against Southern Utah in their season opener: controlled, intentional and efficient.
ASU, which returned only two players from last season, didn’t look like a team that lacked playing experience together, at least on the offensive end, cruising to an 81-64 win over the Thunderbirds at home.
“We struggled at the end of last year, and I told the team we hadn’t won a game in a long time,” Coach Bobby Hurley said. “We had two close exhibition losses … so the program needed to win today and just get off to the right start.”
A balanced offensive showing headlined a dominant first half for the Sun Devils, in which Sparky found multiple ways to score.
Early on, ASU didn’t rely on one player to put the ball in the basket. Rather, it worked the ball around the floor, with six Sun Devils scoring within the first seven minutes of action.
The unselfish play helped fuel a 7-0 ASU run, allowing the Maroon and Gold to take a double-digit lead with just over 10 minutes to go in the first half.
Odum led the charge, handling the ball for the majority of the game and displaying his impressive playmaking ability, dishing out eight assists, five of which came in the first half to help give the home side a 40-28 lead going into the break.
The second half proved to be more of the same for the Sun Devils, who held a substantial lead for the final 20 minutes.
Arizona State made it a point of emphasis to attack the paint. ASU tallied 18 points in the paint in each half, racking up the totals in large part to its ability to find its big men in the pick-and-roll game.
The experience of Arizona State’s guards showed, as its backcourt players effortlessly navigated ball screens and lobbed passes over the heads of Thunderbird defenders into the awaiting hands of Sparky’s towering forwards. Diop and graduate forward Allen Mukeba finished as the main beneficiaries, ending with 14 and 11 points, respectively.
Massamba, in particular, exhibited soft touch near the basket in his Sun Devil debut.
“We’re going to encourage to keep getting Massamba touches,” Hurley said. “He can make some things happen down there, and he’s a willing passer.”
Still, the group of guards found ways to get involved in the scoring column.
Odum did his damage from behind the arc, swishing a trio of three-pointers to help him score all nine of his points. Junior guard Bryce Ford followed suit in the three-point department, adding another three triples, tallying 11 points.
Meanwhile, senior guard Anthony “Pig” Johnson remained active in the transition game, knifing his way to the basket multiple times, finishing with 17 points to lead all ASU scorers. The sparkplug NAIA transfer gives the Sun Devils a jolt of scoring off the bench.
“I would like to start, but it doesn’t matter because whenever I get in, I’m willing to play dog minutes,” Johnson said. “Whatever I (have) got to do to get the win.”
With the ball in the hands of guards like Odum and Johnson, it never felt like the Thunderbirds were in striking distance.
The combined factors propelled the home side to a comfortable 81-64 victory.
Yet, Hurley didn’t leave satisfied.
A lackluster defensive effort, especially in ASU’s ability to defend the paint, stained the Sun Devils’ mostly encouraging performance. The Thunderbirds matched the Maroon and Gold’s scoring inside, amassing a whopping 44 points in the paint.
“I think we all want to be accountable,” Hurley said. “We want to try and set a bar at a certain level and if we don’t attain it, yes, it’s great to win … but I also want to cautiously make them alert to the fact that the water is going to get deeper, and the mistakes that we made tonight are not going to be acceptable.”
Furthermore, Arizona State’s size didn’t prevent Southern Utah from controlling the rebounding category. The Thunderbirds grabbed 40 boards in total, 16 of which came on the offensive end of the floor.
“We have to be able to take care of business on the backboard,” Hurley said. “We’ll find out who the culprits are in the video, and then we’ll take a look at that, and we’ll make everybody accountable.”
With a few days off, ASU will rest up before it welcomes Utah Tech to Desert Financial Arena on Saturday at 1 p.m.
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