TEMPE – Just seconds after Arizona State won the opening tip-off, its sophomore forward, Santiago Trouet, drove his shoulder into his defender and nailed a contested hook shot in the painted area to open up the scoring. It set a precedent for the night to come.
After that bucket, the Sun Devils continued to exploit the paint, as dominant frontcourt play carried the Sun Devils to a comfortable victory.
“I thought the inside play was really the difference,” Coach Bobby Hurley said about the paint presence. “If we literally threw the ball inside every possession down the floor, we would have gotten a high-quality shot of some kind.”
The Arizona State Men’s Basketball team (8-2) completed a quick turnaround from the weekend with a dominant 73-48 win over Northern Arizona (4-5) Tuesday night at Desert Financial Arena. The Sun Devils outscored the Lumberjacks 40-22 in points in the paint and 41-25 in the rebounding category.
Freshman center Massamba Diop led the interior onslaught with 19 points — all in the painted area — six rebounds and a block. The seven-footer controlled the low post all night and took advantage of his multiple-inch height advantage.
Diop established himself early with a pair of made baskets and never let off the gas, turning the low block into a personal scoring clinic. By the time he checked out late in the second half, he walked off to a standing ovation from the Sun Devil crowd.
“Massamba made things look really easy,” Hurley said about his center. “Getting those guys (bigs) touches is important because we have to get points in the paint. That’s where everything starts.”
While Diop was the star inside, other notable frontcourt players got involved early. Trouet finished with 12 points, all in the paint, and eight rebounds, while graduate forward Allen Mukeba maintained his physicality with 10 points and six rebounds.
Even during NAU’s 7-0 run early in the first half that put it up on the scoreboard, ASU weathered the run by feeding the ball back inside. Diop, Trouett, and Mukeba all tallied baskets to stop the spurt and swing momentum back toward their side.
THROW IT DOWN @h23_jr 🔨
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) December 10, 2025
NAU 30 | ASU 48 pic.twitter.com/GZC6x7MiS9
“I just came here and was ready to play,” Mukeba said. “I knew I had to dominate in there (the paint), got the ball and did what I had to do.”
The Sun Devils didn’t just score inside. They dominated every aspect of the painted area.
They won nearly every 50-50 rebound and extended possessions with 10 offensive rebounds, which led to open looks for steady shooters out on the perimeter.
While the guards have been the stars so far this season for the Maroon and Gold, graduate guard Moe Odum struggled to find any offensive consistency. The leading scorer for ASU so far this season finished with just two points in 31 minutes.
While Odum was struggling to find offense, the frontcourt certainly stepped up. Hurley described Odum as a “real leader” for supporting his teammates rather than focusing on his personal success.
Despite the backcourt’s quieter night, the Sun Devils never lost control thanks to their relentless interior production. ASU overwhelmed NAU physically to generate many of its larger scoring runs and eventually break free from the Lumberjacks.
With three frontcourt players in double figures, 41 total rebounds and a complete command of the inside, Sparky dictated the pace from start to finish.
ASU will travel to Las Vegas for the Jack Jones Classic against Santa Clara. And, if Tuesday’s performance is any indication of the Sun Devil big men’s identity in the paint, it will be a problem for anyone that it faces.
“We want to be undefeated in December,” sophomore forward Marcus Adams Jr. said. “That’s the goal we set as a team. … We want to go into Big 12 play with a head on our shoulders.”
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