ASU Basketball: Sun Devils dominate Cal for win No. 20

The ASU basketball team ended a three-game skid with a dominant 84-53 victory over Cal at Wells Fargo Arena Thursday night.

The Sun Devils needed a change of plans.

After three consecutive losses that potentially dropped them five seed lines in the NCAA Tournament, something needed to change.

Yes, the Sun Devils weren’t shooting well.

Yes, inconsistency had been a huge factor.

And yes– it looked like the team’s best days had been long extinct.

But, as coach Bobby Hurley has noted in the past few weeks, something as special as his team’s 12-0 start doesn’t just go away.

Tonight, the Sun Devils may have found one of their missing links, as freshman forward Romello White put forth one of his most consistent efforts in conference play with a 13-point, 11-rebound performance on 5-of-6 shooting in his team’s win over Cal.

It was the first time White had recorded a double-double since Feb. 1 against Washington and the first time he had scored in double figures since their Feb. 4 victory over Washington State.

For White, he felt his performance was a direct showing of the hard work he’s put in over the last few months.

“Really just working on my game, working on different moves,” White said of what he’s done in the practice. “Coach Hurley, my guards was telling me I got to use my left hand and use up-fakes, so I tried to mix it up today and I feel like I did that.”

“I thought ‘Mello was very good today,” Hurley added. “Especially early in the game, just with his rebounding and to start the second half. He had very good minutes.”

In order to set up White and De’Quon Lake on offense, the Sun Devils needed to change their offensive strategy. In their last three losses, stagnant movement and dependence on three-pointers plagued ASU from putting an end to unanswered runs from their opposition.

On Thursday, their execution would look much different. Rather than swinging the ball around the perimeter and shooting a contested jumpshot, the offensive gameplan revolved around the guards driving to the rim to set the bigs up for dunks, layups or free throws.

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Thanks to early aggressiveness from Remy Martin, the Sun Devils looked to pressure Cal’s interior defenders, an effort that would put them in the bonus with 8:41 remaining in the half.

“We wanted to be in attack mode,” Hurley said. “It’s kind of what we did way earlier in the season in terms of the number of free throws we shot today. That’s just a credit to the guards and how they’re attacking.”

The Sun Devils shot 19 free throws in the first half alone, converting on 15 of them to help extend their lead to 10 by halftime.

In the second half, the Sun Devils didn’t waver in their approach. The first three plays of the half involved two low-post looks for White, who duplicated a ball fake toward the baseline and a finish with a right-handed hook on consecutive possessions.

After clamping down on Cal’s big men, the Sun Devils began to create opportunities in transition, as a dunk from Mickey Mitchell and five straight points from Shannon Evans and Tra Holder extended an 8-0 run to put ASU up by 18 with 14:20 remaining.

Despite spurt runs from the Bears, they would never draw any closer than 15 points.

In the blowout victory, one moment stood out for senior guard Kodi Justice.

With a behind-the-back fake leading to a scoop layup with 6:23 left in the second half, Justice recorded the 1,000th point of his Sun Devil Career. He became the 37th player in Sun Devil history to join the club despite only scoring 83 points in his freshman season.

The win brings ASU back within one game of .500 in Pac-12 play with one regular season game remaining against Stanford. However, it’s not quite time to hype the win as a return to form.

Despite shooting above 50 percent from the field for the second time in league play, the 3-point shooting for the Sun Devils still hasn’t caught fire. ASU made just four of their 15 attempts Thursday, keeping them from putting together a complete performance.

However, it’s safe to say the win was promising. The Sun Devils got to the line 37 times, the most since their Nov. 23 victory over Kansas State.

With the Pac-12 Tournament looming, it’s encouraging to see some trends of the non-conference season return.

The question is, will it be sustained?

“When you’ve lost a couple in a row and a couple close games, you can start to doubt yourself some,” Hurley said. “Hopefully we carry this momentum into the next game. We still have to prepare great and make sure we address we need to address tomorrow. Really no time for a victory lap.”

Next: ASU Basketball: 2018 Pac-12 Week 9 Power Rankings

The Sun Devils will return home Saturday to send off Justice, Evans and Holder on Senior Day against the Stanford Cardinal. The game will tip off at 12:30 p.m. MST on Pac-12 Network.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.

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