NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates
Arizona State is a high major, and it showed in an 87-76 victory over Grand Canyon on Thursday night at Footprint Center.
But with an electric crowd of 13,705 on a “neutral site” for the Hall of Fame Series Phoenix, it felt like a big-time college basketball rivalry that might need to be an annual event.
GCU fell to 0-3 in the past five seasons against the bigger, hot-shooting Sun Devils. Arizona State improved to 3-1 on the season while the Lopes are 2-1.
Both coaches appreciated the March-like atmosphere.
“That environment is better than an NCAA Tournament game,” GCU coach Bryce Drew said. “It was fun to coach. Fun to play in. Hopefully, next time we’ll have a full roster.”
ASU coach Bobby Hurley loved the atmosphere, something his team experienced Sunday in a close loss at Gonzaga.
“I liked it,” Hurley said. “I liked it a few years ago when we did a home-and-home. They’re on the rise. They are. They’ve arrived. They’re a legitimate threat in college basketball.”
ASU’s freshman Joson Sanon led the Sun Devils with 21 points off the bench, while Basheer Jihad added 18. GCU was led by Tyon Grant-Foster’s 19 points and Jakobe Coles with 17.
GCU couldn’t defend ASU’s length and found it a challenge to contest the 3-pointers from Sanon, who hit 4 of 5 from long range in the first half and finished with 5 of 7.
ASU made 11 of 25 3-pointers and shot 53% from the field overall.
“Coach put me in, drew up a play for me, and I was on fire,” Sanon said.
“We were pretty good against Santa Clara, we made 15 3s, so I was not surprised,” Hurley said of his team’s shooting effort. “Our percentage was better. But 11 (3s) is kind of normal for us. I figure somewhere in that range we will be, game in and game out.
“We also went inside.”
GCU badly missed 6-foot-10 center Duke Brennan, who has yet to play to the season after injuring his shoulder in an exhibition.
Grant-Foster, playing his first game for GCU since the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 loss to Alabama, showed early rust, but late in the first…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/hot-shooting-propels-arizona-state-052601406.html
Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic
Publish date : 2024-11-15 05:26:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
