Arizona State basketball lacks urgency, hangs on for win over Cal Poly

With a tough enough schedule coming when Big 12 play starts, the Arizona State Sun Devils could not afford to lose a nonconference game that typically goes in the win column. It was a close call, but the Sun Devils emerged with a 93-89 win over visiting Cal Poly Wednesday night at Desert Financial Arena.

The Sun Devils (5-1) had double-digit leads in both halves but it came down to the wire and the Mustangs (3-3) had the chance for the upset.

Joson Sanon made two free throws with 13 seconds left for a 91-87 advantage. But ASU’s B.J. Freeman fouled Jarred Hyder on a 3-point try with six seconds to go. Hyder made two of three to cut the deficit to 91-89. Freeman, however, made two tries from the line to put the game away.

“Not our finest work for sure,” coach Bobby Hurley said. “Our defense took a step back and we didn’t really guard them individually off the dribble and we didn’t guard the line. One-on-one they just made some difficult shots, certainly, but overall that end of the floor hurt us.

“We had different times we got it to double digits, got it to where we could have taken control of the game, and then let them hang around.”

Let’s take a closer look at the contest:

What went right

Rebounding advantage: ASU finished with a 44-24 advantage on the boards. This is an area in which the team has improved considerably. Jayden Quaintance had 12, giving him 26 in ASU’s two games this week. Basheer Jihad was next with seven, while Freeman snagged six. This was the biggest positive Hurley singled out in the game.

Inside play byQuaintance: The freshman phenom had four blocks, giving him 22 on the season. He started the night second in that country with 18, two behind the leader, Amarion Dickerson of Robert Morris. He is now averaging 7.4 rebounds after getting off to a slow start on the boards the first few games. He didn’t have a great offensive game with 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting from the field but had a steal and an assist.

Lots of scoring: Putting the ball in the basket was…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/arizona-state-basketball-lacks-urgency-141808254.html

Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic

Publish date : 2024-11-21 14:18:00

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