ASU Basketball: Sun Devils fall short on Senior Night

TEMPE, AZ - DECEMBER 19: (L-R) Romello White
TEMPE, AZ - DECEMBER 19: (L-R) Romello White

In a tough 84-83 loss against Stanford on Senior Night, ASU basketball was out-sized and out-matched as they finish the regular season 20-10 (8-10 Pac-12).

Tense with the emotion of the Senior Night, the Sun Devils started the game shaky, with up to an 11-point deficit in the first half.

“Shots didn’t fall,” senior guard Kodi Justice said. “This one hurt. This is my last game here, it means a lot to me, these people, this crowd, so this one’s gonna sting.”

According to head coach Bobby Hurley, the emotion was so high between himself, the team and especially the seniors that he wasn’t surprised that they were at a deficit in the first half.

Like a flashback to ASU’s small ball season last year, the Sun Devils seemed out-sized and mismatched even with big men like freshmen Romello White and Kimani Lawrence on the floor.

The match-up resulted in a very physical game from both teams, especially in the first half as both teams combined for 21 fouls.

The foul trouble created an even bigger divide between the size of both teams as big men, White, Lawrence and De’Quon Lake all recorded two fouls before the end of the first half.

“For me, [Stanford] is the biggest team that we’ll play against,” Hurley said. “They have experienced frontcourt players that are productive.”

More from Devils in Detail

The lack of size on the floor for the Sun Devils gave way for junior forward Reid Travis to finish the first half with 15 points and end the game with 24 points.

In addition to Travis’s dominance on the court, freshman forward KZ Okpala was also a huge contributor to the Cardinal recording 18 points and going 8-of-9 from the free throw line.

The two were also nightmares on defense recording 24 rebounds between the two of them alone, out-rebounding the Sun Devils who recorded 23 rebounds all together. However, the Sun Devil defense was a whole different factor all on their own, scoring 30 points off of 21 turnovers.

“The enthusiasm that we defended with and the urgency that we defended with really helped boost our offense in the second half,” Hurley said.

If Travis and Okpala weren’t enough, senior guards Dorian Pickens recorded all of his 20 points in the second half going 5-of-10 from the perimeter.

However, the Sun Devils did manage to keep the game close late in the game starting with a momentum change in the last six minutes of the game when guard Tra Holder hit a fast break three to bring the Sun Devils within four points and then again when Justice drained an off-balance three to tie the game, 82-82, with a minute left in the game.

“It was difficult, but to be able to have the determination, the fight, the will, to be able to come back from 19… it just shows how determined this team is,” Justice said.

In their last game at Wells Fargo Arena, seniors Holder, Justice and Shannon Evans II were still the backbone of Sun Devil basketball, combining for 50 points and shooting at 41 percent.

“We started something here,” Justice said. “We did this as a team, as a unit, us three seniors, this team, all of us, we put this team back on the map.”

With the Pac-12 tournament less than a week away, and their current contention to play in the NCAA tournament, the Sun Devils need to get back to their fast-tempo, hot shooting ways to keep from having a short post season.

“We can beat everybody in the country, we’ve already done that in the non-conference and in our league,” Hurley said. “We’ve proven that we can beat some of the best teams in the country handily.”

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

The Sun Devils will travel to Vegas for the Pac-12 Tournament on March 7 where they’ll play the No. 8 seed in the first round.

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