(Marana, AZ) The First Four’s second night at the Dayton Area pitted two teams from the West, Nevada from the Mountain West Conference and Arizona State from the Pac-12.
Two high profile former players turned coaches, Steve Alford of Nevada and Bobby Hurley at ASU. Between both, they sported three National Championships from Indiana and Duke.
ASU came out of the gate fast and put the Wolfpack quickly on their heels and behind by ten points 13-3.
A time out was called by Nevada even before the first TV timeout. The Wolfpack failed to respond as the Devils continued their early assault.
At the midway point of the first half, the Sun Devils were up 31-20 on good defense and rebounding. Nevada on most possessions was given only one shot attempt as ASU owned the glass.
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Coach Bobby Hurley had his team in overdrive throughout the first half and they played ball hawking defense and limited the Wolfpack to outside jumpers.
On the offensive side, the Devils were smoking hot shooting 71% from the field and 5-9 beyond the arc for a 51-22 led at the 4:45 mark thanks to a 22-2 run.
The half couldn’t end soon enough for Nevada as they trailed 53-26 and would have to regroup in the locker room.
Arizona State went 21-31 from the field (68%) and 8-14 on three pointers (57%).This was the second most points the Devils have scored in a half in their NCAA postseason history.
The Sun Devil defense only allowed Nevada 8-24 (33%). Nevada had only 4 points inside compared to 24 for ASU. Nevada only led for forty seconds having a brief lead at the onset of the game.
Arizona State came out and immediately hilt a three on thier first possession to lead by thirty 56-26.
After that, the Wolfpack gathered themselves somewhat and outscored ASU 14-5 to get within twenty one points at the under sixteen minute media timeout.
Nevada committed its third foul on a three point attempt and ASU sunk 8-9 free throws.
ASU continued to keep its big lead at 68-44 with thirteen minutes left in the game.
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The Wolfpack still tried to cut into the Arizona State lead cut it to nineteen 70-51 and 12:47 left.
Nevada was up to 46% shooting, but the Devils had yet to cool off still tickling the nets for 65%.
For the second time in the half, the Wolfpack got it under a twenty point lead 79-60 but only 6:44 left as Hurley called a timeout when ASU started jacking up threes without running any type of offensive sets.
With under six minutes left, Nevada went into a three quarter court press and the Devils made them pay off an alley-oop dunk to put the lead back to twenty one 83-62.
Hurley regrouped his offense and started to use some clock now on their sets with only 3:23 left.
The Sun Devils wanted to hit the century mark even with a huge lead as they weren’t shy about creating shots.
Hurley wouldn’t give his team the opportunity out of respect for Steve Alford as he put in the reserves and won 98-73.
There were some notable Firsts, such as no team had ever scored that many points in a First Four Game. The Devils had the best shooting percentage of any NCAA game played at the Dayton Arena and the highest percentage under Bobby Hurley.
Four keys to the victory; Arizona State shot 64% for the entire game. Most teams that come out hot in the first half, normally cool off in the second half. Eleven three pointers, thirty three bench points and thirty six points in the paint. Combine all four factors and not too many teams in America could overcome that effort.
The Sun Devils advance to Friday’s game against TCU which is not a good three point shooting team but is tough inside.
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