ASU Men’s Basketball: Dominant second half propels Sun Devils

ASU men’s basketball dominated the second half in a 90-68 win over San Diego State. Highly-touted prospect Romello White made his NCAA debut.

Senior Tra Holder paced the offense with 24 points and the Sun Devils outscored the Aztecs 56-28 after halftime to cruise to their second win of the season in a 22-point blowout over SDSU.

Facing their toughest test early in the season, Arizona State’s biggest question gave the team some much-needed answers.

Following a year of anticipation, redshirt freshman Romello White bursted onto the scene in Tempe in his first career game. White showed defensive composure on the block and a polished low-post game as he scored 16 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to record a double-double.

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“I’ve been waiting for a year to play, so I mean it felt great to play,” said White. ” I was real down, real like in a bad place. But after a while I talked to some guys on the team that had to redshirt and they just told me play hard, get through it and next year is going to be worth it.”

ASU trailed by as many as nine points early in the second half but adjustments on both ends of the floor and a combined scoring effort from White, Holder and a Shannon Evans II had the team leading 51-47 at the first media time out of the period.

“We struggled late in the half and it wasn’t a ton of life at the end of the first half and even in the locker room. You don’t know how a bunch of guys will respond but they responded as well as you could expect, just continuing to get stops and show energy on defense,” said head coach Bobby Hurley.

Also keying the Sun Devils second-half run was the presence of De’Quon Lake. Foul trouble limited the big man in the first half but finished strong with 15 points and seven rebounds in 15 minutes before fouling out.

After a season with nearly no low-post offense, the combination of Lake and White has provided ASU with a 1-2 punch on the block that adds a new dynamic to the offense and enables Hurley’s guards to space the floor and create off the dribble.

For the Aztecs, Trey Kell led the team with 16 points while Max Montana finished with 15. The duo had SDSU ahead at the break but were contained to five points total in the second half.

Next: ASU Men’s Basketball: Lake provides spark for depleted frontcourt

Following the win, next up for the Sun Devils is Northern Arizona. Tip-off for that game will take place Friday at 6 p.m. MT at Wells Fargo Arena with the game televised on Pac-12 Arizona.