Tra Holder‘s scoreless night and 36 Oregon points in the paint were too much to overcome as ASU basketball suffered a 75-68 loss to the Ducks in Eugene.
Where do they stand now?
That will be the question that everyone will ask about ASU men’s basketball, as the Sun Devils dropped back below .500 in Pac-12 play with a seven-point loss to the Oregon Ducks in their first conference game of the week.
Shannon Evans led Arizona State in scoring with 25 points. Remy Martin added 15 off the bench.
Tra Holder, who came into Thursday’s game as the conference’s fourth-leading scorer at 19.3 points per game, was held scoreless in 30 minutes of play.
Much like their first matchup with the Ducks, the Sun Devils got off to quick start, as they made five of their first seven shots while building their early lead to as many as seven points.
With Oregon playing man-to-man defense, the Sun Devils didn’t look to hesitate, as they would attack openings off dribble hand-offs while looking to put up a high volume of shots.
However, the Ducks would make their comeback.
With the substitution of Kenny Wooten, the Ducks were able to find a defensive spark, as Wooten’s shot blocking forced Arizona State to an 0-for-5 scoreless stretch over a 2:58 span.
With the Sun Devil offense slowed down, the Ducks looked to attack the paint, as Troy Brown and MiKyle McIntosh combined for 12 points during a 26-11 Oregon run that put them up by eight with 3:24 left in the half.
However, the Sun Devils wouldn’t quit. Evans, Martin and Kodi Justice put together a 12-7 run over the remainder of the half, and the Sun Devils were able to cut the Oregon lead to three by halftime.
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In the second half, the Ducks started out on fire, as Elijah Brown followed up his first half buzzer-beater with a personal 10-0 run to begin the second.
Right on cue, the Sun Devils made a push. Evans recorded seven straight points in a 12-2 run to negate the Oregon lead, and suddenly, the Sun Devils were back at their halftime deficit of three with 12:24 remaining in the game.
Then, like most Pac-12 games for Arizona State, their size began to hurt them.
Down five points with 10:43 to go, the Sun Devils put together a solid possession on defense. After working the Ducks late in the shot clock, Troy Brown forced a contested jumpshot that came off the front of the rim.
But it didn’t land in the hands of a Sun Devil player.
Instead, Paul White recorded what would be one of 12 offensive rebounds on the night for the Oregon, allowing the offense to reset. Eighteen seconds later, that missed rebound would turn into a three-pointer for White and an eight-point advantage for the Ducks.
Two possessions later, the Sun Devils forced a miss from White in the low post. However, they didn’t finish with a rebound, and suddenly, a one possession game just four plays earlier turned into a double-digit game after an and-one opportunity from Wooten on a putback layup.
The Sun Devils would never draw within five points for the remainder of the game.
Prior to the Arizona game, ASU had limited six of their last seven opponents to under 10 offensive rebounds. With defensive sets that encouraged their opposition to adjust lineups, the Sun Devils were finally looking like the team that started 12-0 in nonconference play.
In their past two games, that look has been decimated, as they’ve now allowed 14 and 12 offensive rebounds in consecutive losses.
Before Thursday’s game, the Sun Devils had jumped from a No. 8 seed in the South region to a No. 6 seed in the East region in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology report.
A road loss to Oregon shouldn’t do much to hurt their chances. However, as they get set to face an Oregon State team that currently ranks at No. 170 in RPI, it’s clear that the margin of error is slim.
The Sun Devils hold a solid resume against top tier opponents, as they’ve been able to knock off five teams in the RPI top 50 and three more teams in the RPI top 84.
However, if they were to lose to the Beavers, that would be two losses outside the RPI top 90 in one week, a feat that could put them on the bubble watch next week.
Needless to say, the Sun Devils’ last road game of the season will be a must-win in order to hold on to that blanket of security.
Next: ASU Basketball: 2018 Pac-12 Week 8 Power Rankings
The Sun Devils and the Beavers will square off at the Gill Coliseum on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT. The game can be viewed via ESPNU.