ASU Basketball: Sun Devils face must-win matchup in Corvallis

ASU basketball will look to recover from Thursday’s loss against Oregon as they prepare to take on Oregon State in their last road game of the season.

Breaking news: there are still basketball games to be played.

Amidst all the reports about the ongoing FBI investigation in college basketball, the Sun Devils have more pressing matters at hand, all starting with their primetime Saturday night showdown against the Oregon State Beavers.

Coming off Thursday night’s loss to Oregon, the Sun Devils dropped to the No. 29 ranking in RPI with a strength of schedule ranking of 74. Despite two straight losses, the site projects ASU to win out in their last three games.

In order to live up to that hype, the Sun Devils will first have to battle a sneaky dangerous team in the Beavers.

Despite being ranked 10th in the conference standings, Wayne Tinkle‘s squad has put together some solid victories in conference play, including a six-point win over UCLA last month and a buzzer-beater victory against Washington two weeks ago.

Of the 13 wins they’ve picked up this year, 12 of them have come at home.

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The Beavers are led by the coach’s son, Tres Tinkle, who has shown to be capable of impacting the stat sheet in a multitude of ways. Against the Washington schools two weeks ago, Tinkle averaged 24.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.0 steals on 53.1 percent shooting en route to being named the conference’s player of the week.

Tinkle is joined by the hot-shooting brotherly duo of Stephen and Ethan Thompson, who have combined for 80 3-point makes on the season. The pair put together 32 of the 65 Beaver points scored in their overtime loss to Arizona on Thursday.

When the Sun Devils and Beavers first squared off on Jan. 13 in Tempe, the buildup had been much different. ASU was ranked No. 11 in the country, and the Beavers ranked first in the conference in field goal defense percentage at 39 percent.

In the first half, neither team was able to pull away, as Arizona State held the largest lead at five points.

With Oregon State up one at the break, the Sun Devils looked lucky, as Shannon Evans surprisingly remained scoreless through the first 20 minutes of play.

The Beavers came out in the second half immediately looking for the kill. The Thompson brothers combined for three 3-pointers in a 23-11 run over the first 8:28 of the half, and it looked like the Sun Devils were about to suffer a sweep at home.

Then, Evans put the team on his back.

He finished with all 22 of his points to go along with four rebounds and four assists after halftime, as he kickstarted a burst that gave ASU a key 11-0 run to pull back within two points.

After putting the Devils up five with 44 seconds to go, Evans would ward off any comeback chance, as he nailed a free throw with seven seconds left to give the Devils a two-point lead and the win with a stop on defense.

But boy, it was close.

If history says anything about matchups, it’s likely that the Sun Devils will face another tough outing against the Beavers. The team overcame a double-digit deficit to force overtime against Arizona, where a spectacular performance from Rawle Alkins in overtime became the difference in a close game.

In spite of Evans’ heroics, the Sun Devils faced similar problems in the first matchup that have haunted them in the past two games: defensive rebounding. The Beavers grabbed 14 offensive boards in that outing, as ASU was unable to hold off the big bodies of Tinkle and Drew Eubanks.

In order to leave Corvallis with a win, matching the Beavers with big lineups and boxing out have to be the two main priorities for coach Bobby Hurley and his team.

Next: ASU Basketball: Sun Devils drop second straight game against Oregon

The Sun Devils and the Beavers will tip off at the Gill Coliseum at 6 p.m. MST as the game can be viewed live on ESPNU.

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