(Tempe, AZ) Game Three of the season pitted the Sun Devils against the Rider Broncos.
Rider from the Metro Athletic Athletic Conference from Lawrenceville, NJ were undefeated at 2-0 while the. Devils split their two games in China and rolled past Central Connecticut State last Thursday.
Remy Martin started the scoring at the 18:03 mark of the first half, Rider followed thirty seconds later to tie it up 2-2.
Devils began very cold from the field and were down 12-4 with 13:45 left in the opening half.
Sophomore Elias Valtonen from Finland hit a much needed three pointer at the 13:33 mark. A lay up by Junior Alonzo Verge pulled ASU within three at 12-9.
Freshman Jalen Graham’s dunk put the Sun Devils ahead 14-12 and sophomore Taeshon Cherry followed with a three ball as the ASU went on a 13-0 run and led 17-12.
Rider stopped the bleeding with a bucket from Christian Ings at the 9:13 mark but Romello White came back with a dunk and at the media timeout Sparky led 21-16.
Out of the timeout, Remy Martin hit shot beyond the arc and Rider’s Fredrick Scott answered with a drive and a nice layup. Devils still maintained a six point lead 24-18.
ASU’s hot shooting continued with a 19-6 run and finish off the first half 43-24.
Rider had started the game with hot shooting but quickly cooled off at finished the half shooting 10-27 at 37% while it took the Devils a little over five minutes to warm up before they took the lead and ended up shooting 43% (17-40).
ASU had eighteen big points off the bench with the Broncos with zero from the non-starters in the first half.
On the downside, the Sun Devils only made 3-7 from the foul line, making up for it with 6-16 from beyond the arc.
Bronco’s big man Tyere Marshall picked up his fourth foul with 18:17 to go in the game.
Rider couldn’t make any dent in the deficit and at the first media timeout of the second half, the Devils led 53-29.
Valtonen hit a jumper in the paint to give Sparky a 55-29 lead with still 15:07 left in the game.
Rider couldn’t stay with the Sun Devil speed as they were constantly on their heels chasing them in transistion.
The Broncos still couldn’t get it under the the twenty point margin at the second media timeout 58-37 with 11:33 left.
Rider played a lot of 2-3 zone defense trying to stop the Devils outside shooting attack. The Devils had hit eight three point baskets at the 7:16 media timeout.
Martin and Jaelen House had lit it up from outside going a combined 15-25 with over five and a half minutes to play.
With Marshall out for the Broncos, they still had the rebounding edge but with far fewer buckets and three’s it was difficult to stay with ASU.
After the initial five minutes there was no way the Broncos could hang with Arizona State. When you’re constantly chasing the lead, tired legs and a lot of reach in fouls and tempers flared up as the Broncos Khalil Turner was called for a technical foul with 2:20 left and Rider behind 85-53.
Sun Devils win big 92-55 and got to 2-1 on the young season.
Coach Bobby Hurley’s team played spot on defense forcing twenty nine turnovers and scored thirty two points off of them.
Another big takeaway from this game was the bench. With the Sun Devils starting slow, Hurley went to the bench and they delivered huge by scoring thirty two points led by House’s twenty points.
This Sun Devil team is averaging 87.6 points per game and only giving up 58.3 points to their opponents.
After losing their first game in China to Colorado 81-71, ASU has really picked up their defensive intensity much to the delight of Hurley.
The Devils now stand 2-1 on the season and have the Red Storm of St. Johns University on November 23rd in Jamaica New York.
Arizona State wont be back home at Desert Financial Arena until December 7th when they face Louisiana Ragin Cajuns.
