Heading into Saturday night’s matchup against the Oregon State Beavers, ASU basketball looked to bounce back after a tough loss at the hands of the Oregon Ducks.
The matchup against the Beavers is one that the Sun Devils expected to win away from Tempe. Instead of the Sun Devils handling their business, Oregon State gave them the business winning 79-75.
From wire-to-wire the Beavers were able to muster one of the Pac-12’s most complete team victories. The key components of the Beaver victory was ball movement and paint dominance.
The Beavers shot 53 percent from the field on 28 made field goals. Fueling their devastatingly efficient offense was constant ball movement. The Beavers had 19 total assists on the night and five separate players scoring 12 or more points.
The Beavers decimated the Devils inside scoring 18 second chance points to go along with 44 total points in the paint.
Tres Tinkle led the way for the Beavers against ASU controlling the first half of tonight’s game by scoring 13 points and setting the tone heading into the half. The sophomore forward tallied 15 points (7-of-13 shooting), eight rebounds and eight assists.
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The star of tonight’s game however was Drew Eubanks. The 6-foot-10 junior dominated the paint late in the game leading the Beavers with 16 points and eight rebounds.
For the Sun Devils however, this was a true gut punch defeat. The once top-three ranked Sun Devils have now lost three games in a row and are two games below .500 in Pac-12 play for the third time this season.
After the defeat in which only one Sun Devil scored more points than the team had turnovers; Head Coach Bobby Hurley could only describe this loss in a few words.
“I’m a terrible coach right now.” Hurley said.
ASU shot 44 percent on 55 field goal attempts as a team, turned the ball over 16 times and only managed 26 points in the paint. The once daunting Sun Devil offense was held below 80 points for the ninth time in conference play.
The most concerning part of this defeat was the lack of ball-movement and yet another given up late first half run. The Sun Devils only mustered nine total assists and six fast break points on the night.
Over the final five minutes of the first half the Beavers put together a 16-5 run. OSU shot 7-of-7 from the field and gave ASU fits on the defensive end. The Beavers were able to turn a five-point deficit to a six-point lead at the half.
A late run led by Tra Holder (23 points) was ASU’s last ditch effort to win this game, and it came up just short. After eight straight made free throws, Holder tied the game at 75 with a made three from the top of the key. However, the Sun Devils weren’t able to cash in on their next two possessions.
Ethan Thompson sealed the win for the Beavers with two made free throws that extended the lead to what would be the eventual final score of 79-75.
Next: ASU Basketball: Sun Devils drop second straight game against Oregon
With this loss ASU must get back to the drawing board with only two games left in Pac-12 play. Luckily for the Bobby Hurley’s squad they have a chance to get back to the basics against Cal on March 1 in Tempe before closing the regular season against Stanford.