(Tempe, AZ) Sun Devil Men’s Basketball battled with No. 6 Arizona, but suffered a 85-67 defeat in front of a sold-out Desert Financial Arena crowd of 14,129 Wednesday night.
Arizona State (14-15, 8-10 Pac-12) was able to cut the lead within single digits in the second half, getting as close as five with 12 minutes remaining in the second half, but Arizona (22-6, 13-4 Pac-12) pulled away in the final five minutes.
Adam Miller led the way with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting on the night. Millier was one of four Sun Devils to finish in double figures, with Frankie Collins finishing with 18 points, tying a career-high of four made threes, going 4-of-9 which the junior achieved on Jan. 19 this season against UCLA.
Jose Perez added 14 points with five rebounds on the night and Jamiya Neal totaled 12 points with five rebounds and two steals on the night.
The Sun Devils were unable to overcome a slow start in the opening half, shooting 4-of-21 from the field to start the game against the Top-10 Wildcats, who opened the game 6-for-8 from the field and jumped out to a 13-3 lead early in the first half.
Arizona State managed to outscore the Wildcats 15-11 in the final 7:13 of the first half, going into halftime with a 41-27 deficit, and shot 5-of-8 from the field compared to Arizona’s 6-of-12 in the final eight minutes of the first half. Frankie Collins led the Sun Devils at the half with ten points.
The maroon & gold showed resilience to open the second half with an 8-0 run in 2:08 to cut into the Wildcat lead to six, awaking Desert Financial Arena, sitting at 41-35 before Arizona broke the run with a layup, making it 43-35 with 17:40 to go. After two quick free throws from Neal, a three from Arizona extended their lead back to 11 at the under-16 timeout.
Following an Arizona layup, Collins drained his fourth three of the game, putting the Sun Devil lead back to nine, then Gaffney cashed in on a layup, forcing an Arizona timeout with 13:47 remaining in regulation with the Sun Devils down seven, 50-43.
Photo – Joe Rondone/The Republicout
Coming out of the stoppage, ASU stayed within seven following a Bryant Selebangue layup and a pair of Collins’ free throws, now trailing Arizona 54-47 with 11:05 remaining. Despite the Wildcats extending the lead back to double-digits, the Sun Devils fought to keep the game at a six-point deficit at 59-53 with 8:10 left after Perez cashed both of his free throws. Perez responded after an Arizona Dunk with a floater to keep the deficit at six.
After the under-8 timeout, Neal made 1-of-2 free throws, putting ASU within five at 61-56, but Arizona completed a three-point play to extend their lead back to eight with 6:49 left. Perez answered with a layup to keep the Sun Devils within two possessions.
Arizona would go on a 9-3 stretch to extend their lead back to 12 with about five minutes in regulation. Despite four quick points by Perez to cut the deficit back to single digits, the Wildcats went on a quick 6-0 stretch to extend their lead back to 13, ultimately putting the game out of reach for the Sun Devils, falling 85-67.
QUOTABLES
Arizona State Head Coach Bobby Hurley:
Opening Statement:
“I thought Arizona played a really good basketball game. After watching them all year and playing against them now, twice, I would say in my nine years here is most likely the best Arizona team that I faced. So they’re a really good team. They deserve the credit for outplaying us in this game.”
On the difference heading into the second half:
“I felt like being down 14 was sneaky good for us. Knowing we had possession of the ball, knowing that we settled for a lot of jump shots early in the first half and couldn’t really get anything done around the basket. I think when I used the time out it was like 28 to 12 and I think it got to 30 to 12, but we played basically even the rest of the way for the last 30 minutes. We just had to clean things up and we can’t have turnovers against them. We can’t have points taken off the board for us to go the other way to them against a team like this. They’re just too good of a team.”
On what this rivalry means to him:
“I’m exhausted right now. There’s more to it. There were a lot of subplots today and the emotion of the day for me personally was not the easiest thing to navigate with regards to all the seniors, particularly. Jose is just…for one year, short time, a warrior. He gave us everything he’s got every time he steps out on the floor. Just plays as hard as he can the best way he knows how to play. (Alonzo) Gaffney has been good to me and a big part of an NCAA tournament team. Nice kid, great kid. Wouldn’t trade him for anybody. Really. He’s the type of kid that I want in the program, he has a great heart. Then obviously Bobby goes without saying what he means to me. Forget about winning basketball games and making shots or winning a championship or breaking an assist record. That means nothing. He’s a far better human being than I am. So that’s all that I could hope for. When you add all that into the mix of playing a team like Arizona and what the game means to our fan base, then it’s the ultimate level of disappointment, but certainly I have to give credit where credit is due and in my opinion, they are a very loaded team that has a chance to do a lot of damage the rest of the way.”
Arizona State Guard Adam Miller
On how much the group of seniors mean to him
“Oh, man, to me specifically, this is my fourth year, I was at LSU for two years but each year is a new team. Every team I’ve been on I’ve always respected, my leaders, my vets. This year I’m actually a vet myself, but I’ve always respected them. It’s their last go around, I always try to make sure I go the extra mile because it’s not always about yourself. They have dreams and aspirations as much as I do. So, we tried to play our hearts out for them tonight. Didn’t get the win, but the respect I have for those guys is very high. We have bonds and friendships that will last for a lifetime.”
On what he liked from his own team tonight against Arizona:
“Resilience. There’s been a lot of times this year that we just folded. We didn’t necessarily do that as often tonight I feel like. Pretty sure you’ve seen the games we folded a couple of times. When you fight, you’re not gonna win everything. But me personally, it’s the way you lose. You know what I’m saying? It’s the way you go about life and take your L’s. A couple shots here and there could’ve gone in, better start early on, but the effort was there for the most part. So you can’t beat yourself up too much, but you wanna win those types of games. So, there’s really no moral victories or nothing like that.”
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Zach Wargo
