Arizona State’s Big 12 men’s basketball opener didn’t go well. It lost by 20 points at Brigham Young. With a showdown against juggernaut Kansas looming, the last thing Bobby Hurley’s team could afford was a loss at home to visiting Colorado.
The Sun Devils (10-3, 1-1) got back on track Saturday, defeating Colorado 81-61 at Desert Financial Arena.
ASU had control from start to finish. The teams traded buckets early and there were five lead changes, with a 3-pointer by Alston Mason giving the host team an 8-6 lead. ASU led the rest of the way.
ASU’s biggest lead of the first half was 23 points at 40-17 while the largest advantage in the second was 25 at 65-40.
B.J. Freeman totaled 19 points while Basheer Jihad added 17 with six rebounds and two steals. Jayden Quaintance registered his fourth double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. He also blocked three shots.
Colorado (9-4, 0-2) came in with a good resume, highlighted by a win over defending national champion UConn but the Buffaloes had played nine of their previous 12 games at home.
Let’s take a closer look:
What went right
ASU shot well: The Sun Devils turned in a good offensive performance, which is even more noteworthy given the absence of their top shooter and leading scorer in freshman Joson Sanon. ASU was 28-for-54 (51.9%) for the game, with a 51.7% (15-for-29) in the first half and a 52% (13-for-25) in the second. That’s consistency.
Stayed out of foul trouble: The Sun Devils were down two key players to injury so the last thing they could afford was foul trouble and that never was an issue. Colorado was never in the bonus. Mason did pick up a fourth foul but it came with only a minute left.
Held Buffs leading scorer without a point: Senior guard Julian Hammond came in Colorado’s leading scorer but he went 0-for-7 from the field, including 0-for-3 from deep and did not factor in the scoring total.
Played good defense: This was one of ASU’s better performances on the defensive end as it limited Colorado to 34.8% (23-for-66) from the field and a 3-for-24 (12.5%) from deep. ASU won the rebounding battle 38-34 and forced 14 turnovers.
What went wrong
Squandered part of big lead: The Sun Devils led by as many as 23 points, that advantage coming at 40-17 with 2:49 left in the first half, only to let Colorado retaliate with the last 10 points of the half, cutting the deficit to 40-27. ASU was 0-for-2 with three turnovers and committed two fouls during that Colorado run.
Too many turnovers: ASU had 16 turnovers, with Jihad committing five of them. Colorado finished with a 17-10 advantage in points off turnovers. ASU had 15 assists but when you have more turnovers than assists that isn’t a good thing. This has been a problem for ASU and something it needs to resolve with better competition looming.
Personnel
The Sun Devils played without Sanon (13.5 ppg), the team’s leading scorer and top shooter. He injured his ankle late in Tuesday’s loss at Brigham Young. That made ASU thin at the guard position because they’re already without junior Austin Nunez who is out for the season with a foot injury.
Hurley said coming in he was worried his team might be even further depleted since Shawn Phillips hasn’t practiced much lately because of a foot injury. But he was pleased with the way he “sucked it up” and was able to play 17 minutes.
ASU suffered another blow as Freeman got ejected for a flagrant 2 foul with 8:54 left and ASU up 65-40. He had 19 points, four rebounds and four assists.
They said it
“Good bounce back, a back against the wall kind of game with what our schedule looks like in the near future and coming off the BYU game and shorthanded without our leading scorer. The guys rallied and played well. The only thing, we kind of flipped the script on, not finishing the first half well and not finishing the game well and we were kind of the opposite at BYU so hopefully we get closer at putting it all together but we shared the ball well in the first half and for the most part on the offense we were good.” — ASU coach Bobby Hurley
“I was trying to fight through the screen and I accidently hit him somewhere nobody wants to be hit at so I apologized. It was nothing that was intentional, nothing like that. Just me trying to fight through a screen, I have been having a hard time fighting through screens and playing help defense. I apologized to that player. It wasn’t intentional.” — B.J. Freeman on his ejection
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“It was a good slate of teams to prepare us. We saw different looks, different play styles so I think we were ready for whatever the Big 12 throws at us.” — Basheer Jihad, on the nonconference schedule
Up next
The Sun Devils hit the road for a much-anticipated showdown against No. 7 Kansas (9-3, 0-1 Big 12) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse. The teams played a couple of competitive games in the 2017 and 2018 seasons when the Jayhawks were ranked No. 2 and then No. 1 the following season. The Sun Devils won both games.
Wednesday’s game will air on ESPN2.
