ASU Basketball: Maryland Outlasts the Devils
By Mike Slifer
The ASU men’s basketball team dropped a close game to the Maryland Terrapins in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic Tournament in Kansas City. The Sun Devils had a 73-71 lead in the final minutes but Maryland scored seven unanswered points to win 78-73. The Devils drop to 3-1 on the season.
Despite a scrappy defensive effort by ASU, Maryland’s Dez Williams and Melo Trimble combined for 42 points. Throughout the game, ASU was stride for stride with Maryland, with the score differential never more than four points either way. ASU’s scoring was led by a couple of shooters who came off the bench. Senior Jon Gilling led the way with 7 three-pointers. Bo Barnes contributed five triples on his way to scoring 17 points.
The Devils got an early boost from transfer Gerry Blakes. Blakes is considered a defensive specialist and a role player offensively, but he kept the Sun Devils in the game early by scoring 10 of his 14 points in the first half. Curiously, it was a disappointing night for senior forward Shaquielle McKissic. Coming into this game, McKissic was the leading scorer for ASU. He could only muster 5 points in the game.
It is clear that the ASU coaching staff is still tinkering with the lineup. Coach Herb Sendek is trying to find the right combination of players to put on the floor to start the game and trying to figure out his rotation from the bench. In the final minutes, Gilling, Barnes and guard Kodi Justice were on the floor to close out the game. None of those three players started the game.
In basketball, defining roles is paramount to a team’s identity. Right now, even though this ASU squad looks unselfish and athletic at the perimeter positions, there was still some confusion late in the game. With 1:19 remaining and ASU up by two with the ball, coach Sendek called a timeout. Presumably, coach Sendek took the timeout to get the offense organized and call a play. It didn’t happen. On the possession, ASU looked confused. They couldn’t get set up properly, or they had the wrong personnel in the wrong spots. Whatever went wrong, McKissic ended up just going hard to the basket and threw up an off-balanced shot. To be fair, it looked like McKissic was trying to draw the foul, but it wasn’t called.
Maryland went on to score the last seven points of the game.
While it’s never fun to lose a game. The ASU program should be encouraged by their effort. Losing to Maryland is nothing to be ashamed of. The Sun Devils had outstanding ball movement, good shot selection and played tough defense. The difference in the game was 34 rebounds for Maryland and 24 rebounds for ASU. That’s ten extra possessions for the Terps. Also, ASU missed 5 free throws. All of those misses at the line were late in the game.
If ASU can regroup and win the consolation game tomorrow against the loser of the Iowa State/Alabama game, they would have to feel pretty good about the start of their season.