(Phoenix, AZ) The second half of the Jerry Colangelo Classic saw Arizona State Sun Devils (6-2) and the Oklahoma Sooners (6-2).
Early in the season, it was hard to get a read on either team, but ASU Coach Bobby Hurley wanted to treat this game like a tournament game.
Oklahoma had a stellar basketball tradition with many superstar players that had played for the Sooners.
ASU needs to have a very good season and make the Big Dance during March in Hurley’s final year of his current contract.
Photo – Catherine Wong
First Half
ASU bolted out to an 11-4 lead to start the game. Oddly enough, the game began with an administrative technical on Coach Bobby Hurley for not submitting his starting lineup at the proper time.
The Sooners hit just. 1-6 field goal attempts to start the game for 13%, while Arizona State hot their first three treys.
Oklahoma’s defense, or lack thereof was like a damn breaking and trying to stop the water with a colander. The Devils took a commanding 27-9 lead at the halfway mark of the first half.
At the under eight minute timeout, the lead was 32-14 largely in part to a 12-4 advantage of points in the paint. The bench also was a huge factor with a 17-5 points.
Everything went right for the Devils from inside post moves to hitting 6-9 baskets beyond the and a 42-22 lead at the three minute mark.
To put the first half in perspective, it was total domination for ASU and everything that could have gone wrong for Oklahoma unfortunately did. The Sun Devils capped off an almost flawless half with 7-10 from three, 16-29 from the field, 24 bench points for a 47-28 halftime lead.
Photo – Catherine Wong
Second Half
With a huge hole that Oklahoma had to dig out of just to make the game competitive, didn’t start off well. The Sun Devils came out of the locker room and instantly went on a 6-0 run to extend the lead 53-28 before Nijel Pack hit a three pointer for the Sooners.
The Sooners bench began to contribute along with 4 three pointers when they were shutout in that category in the first half.
The bad news was they trailed by 19 points at half and at the under 16 minute timeout they were down by 21 points 56-35.
The three’s continued to rain down with ASU hitting 10-16 at that point in the contest. Even though the Devils shooting had cooled off from the first half, they still were hitting 57% from the field. The only stat that was less than spectacular was their free throw shooting 14-21 for 67%.
With exactly 9 minutes left, the Sooners had whittled the deficit down under 20 points trailing 70-52, but in reality they were just playing ASU even for the second half.
The next three minutes, the Devils played like they were bored snd their lack of effort was very noticeable yet Oklahoma still trailed by 18 points 81-63.
Coach Hurley was able to use his bench extensively as the non starters contributed 41 points, exactly half of the 82 points ASU had at this point of the game.
Even with the Sooners much better performance in the second half, they only out scored ASU by 3 points in the half on a late three pointer by Kuol Atak with 27 seconds left.
Final Score 86-70.
Photo – Catherine Wong
Wrap Up
Arizona State was ranked 93rd prior to tonight’s game. Oklahoma was ranked 54th. This game was difficult to read inasmuch as this question still hasn’t been answered. Tonight the Sun Devils in the first half looked like a tournament team.
The Sooners looked 180° opposite of Arizona State. Their defense was porous and they couldn’t buy a basket in the first 5 minutes of the game.
With Oklahoma outranking the Sun Devils by 39 places, on paper this should have been a blowout for the Sooners. This is a prime reason why early season rankings a lot of times are not realistic.
ASU showed tonight they can hit the their shots beyond the arc finishing 13-24 (54%). With the large lead throughout the game, the Devils were able to go deep into their bench and they delivered with 43 points and the starters also scored 43 points.
Up Next
Tuesday December 9th, their upstate rival Lumberjacks visit Desert Financial. Tip off is at 7 p.m.
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