(Tempe, AZ) The Sun Devils opened up their 2023-24 home season with Texas Southern in the Legacy Series and annual Salute to Service Game.
Arizona State lost its season opener, in Chicago to the Mississippi State Bulldogs 71-56 last Wednesday night at the Barstool Sports Invitational.
Texas Southern and ASU have met three times previous with the Sun Devils holding a 2-1 advantage.
Tigers struck first, but ASU’s full court trapping press gave TSU some problems early.
With two and half minutes gone, the score was 2-1 as both teams were slow out of the gate.
The Devils went on a 5-0 run to put a little distance between at 11-6 in the fourteenth minute, but still wasn’t in the flow that Coach Hurley wanted. With seven forced turnovers, the Devils should have had a bigger lead.
The Tigers gave up a lot of height to ASU as the Devils look to exploit that. With just under twelve minutes left in the first half, Sparky had doubled up the score at 16-8.
Texas Southern didn’t reach double figures till the 10:26 mark of the first half 18-10 ASU.
The Sun Devils shooting woes continued into the stretch run of the half only going 8-20 (40%) as they were cold from the perimeter. The lack of attacking the paint kept TSU in the game.
With 5:02 left in the half, ASU lead 21-14 with both teams cold as ice from the field. Collectively, they were 1-15 from beyond the arc.
After letting the Tigers hang around the majority of the first half, the Devils finally stretched the lead to double digits 28-18 at the 2:15 mark.
At the half, the Sun Devils had a 28-20, but ASU needed to have a major reset for the second half. The Devils shot a paltry 10-29 (34%) from the field were awful from the charity strip only hitting 7-16 (44%).
The one bright spot was the Devils defense which forced the Tigers into 16 turnovers, but only scored 13 points off their miscues.
The second half began with teams coming out shooting better, but the Tigers cut the ASU lead to four 32-28 forcing Coach Hurley to call a time out right out of the locker room.
The Devils stretched the lead back to ten 38-28 at the 15:03 mark, but still weren’t firing on all cylinders.
Back came the Tigers, as their shots beyond the stripe began to fall pulling within a basket 40-38 with thirteen minutes to go,
Back and forth they went, but the Sun Devils couldn’t shake Texas Southern and with just under seven minutes left, they maintained their ten point lead, but with all the defensive stats going ASU’s way, they should have had a twenty point lead at this point of the game.
The one thing that stood out was the poor shot selection of the Sun Devils. They were in the lead strictly on talent and not performance.
Texas Southern wouldn’t go away as they cut the lead to eight 56-48 at the three and a half minute mark.
Things finally opened up for Arizona State with under two minutes to go as they got a steals and fast break layup followed by an offensive rebound and put back on the next possession and finished with a 63-52 victory.
ASU on shot 37%, but their defense stepped up when it had to and kept TSU to 32% from the field.
In all aspects, the game was sloppy for both sides in only their second game of the season.
Going forward, the Sun Devils needed to find better outside shooting as they were 6-18 for their three point shots.
Arizona State forced 18 turnovers but could only muster 17 points off the Tigers’ miscues. Free throw shooting was also a concern where the Devils went 15-28 (53.6%)
The Devils had the height advantage but Texas Southern out rebounded them 49-44. On the offensive side, each team had 26 points in the paint.
This ASU team is very athletic, but they’ll need to find offensive continuity to improve their scoring, while their defense looks to be their strength early on.
The Sun Devils even up their record at 1-1 and will host University of Massachusetts – Lowell on Thursday night at Desert Financial.
The attendance was 7,263.
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