By Adam Beadle
Multimedia Specialist
It didn’t take long for Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley to rip off his tie on Tuesday night.
Hurley was assessed a technical foul not even ten minutes into the game. But it seemed to light a spark within the Sun Devils.
Being down 17-5, ASU would outscore San Diego 35-16 to end the half, including going on a 15-2 run that lasted just over three minutes.
The spark quickly turned into a blazing fire in the second half as ASU outscored the Toreros 50-20 in the second, leading the Sun Devils to secure its eighth win of the season with a 90-53 win over San Diego.
Freshman guard Joson Sanon, who finished the game with five made shots from deep and 19 total points in ASU’s win, came off the bench once again for ASU. However, Hurley said that he is basically that of a starter.
“He’s going to play 30-plus minutes,” Hurley said. “He was in the game tonight, I think, within like two and a half minutes or so. That’s going to be the norm, and I don't know who it's going to be that will come out, but someone will because I need him in the game, so he's going to be in the game a lot.”
Even though Sanon has not come off the bench a lot in his playing career, it’s a new norm he’s settling into.
“It gives me more of an opportunity to see the floor,” Sanon said. “Like the starters might mess up here and there, I won’t try to come in and [make] the same mistake.”
The 37-point win is the first time ASU has beaten an opponent by 25 plus points since taking down Nevada in the First Four of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, and the most the Sun Devils have beaten an opponent by since ASU beat Grambling State by 31 in 2022.
Yet, Hurley was not satisfied with ASU’s performance.
“I didn’t do a good job of getting us ready for this game,” Hurley said. “We just didn't come out right at all, you know, just a little bit flat, didn't have the edge we needed, and so we can't afford to do that.”
“We missed free throws. We turned the ball over. We, you know, we gave them some transition baskets. We just didn't play anything like we had been playing over the last couple of weeks, so it was a little bit frustrating in the first.”
While ASU started slightly sloppy in the first half, senior forward Basheer Jihad credited the changes ASU made offensively at the end of the first half that propelled them to get things going toward the end.
“They were playing a two-three zone for most of the game,” Jihad said. “We haven't seen that much this year,” Jihad said. “So I mean, that made us a little uncomfortable, but once we figured it out, we abused it.”
ASU quickly turned on the jets, outscoring the Toreros 25-10 in the second part of the first half after Hurley was assessed the technical. Sanon seemed to be the key to the Sun Devils finally getting things going offensively, but it was freshman forward Jayden Quaintance who got things done on the defensive end.
Quaintance, who finished the game with a near double-double, racking up 10 points, nine rebounds, and five blocks, left his teammates and Hurley in awe as he popped off the ground and reached up to make a block, all within about two seconds late in the first half.
“It’s something I could never do,” Hurley said. “Like, maybe on, like, an eight-foot basket or something like when I was seven years old… it's scary, like, his timing, and his instincts, and his mobility, for someone so big.”
With 33 blocks on the year, Quaintance has surpassed Ike Diogu for the third most blocks by a Sun Devil freshman, and is 24 blocks away from breaking the record set by Mario Bennett in 1991 for the most in a season.
Jihad couldn’t even fathom what the star freshman has been able to do this season.
“No, it's crazy,” Jihad said. “I'm amazed at almost every game. Honestly, I really am. He just has a great feel for it. Just comes out of nowhere. I'm amazed every game.”
ASU came out perfect from beyond the arc in the second half, with senior guard Alston Mason claiming the team’s first points, and it didn’t take long this time for the team to find its groove. The Sun Devils made 8-of-10 shots from the field to begin the second half, to which ASU pressed hard on the gas pedal.
Senior guard Adam Miller converted on a 3-point attempt with just over 11 minutes to go in the game, giving ASU a 20-point lead over the Toreros. ASU continued a dominant stretch, eventually holding a 30-point lead over the Toreros over a stretch in which ASU went on a 19-1 scoring run.
Once the reserves came in for the Sun Devils, the fans marked that the game was over before it ended, making their way to the exits. This is the last time the Sun Devils will play at home until the new year when they host Colorado in their first game as members of the Big 12.
ASU has 11 days before its next game against No. 13 Florida in a neutral site contest in Atlanta, Georgia. Hurley said he is focused on ensuring his guys are right for ASU’s second-biggest game of the season.
“It'll be a mixture of taking care physically, refreshing some guys that are banged up, getting our legs back, mentally refreshing event, and then really getting after it on a practice floor to start getting ready for that game,” Hurley said.
コメント