In what what was a gut-wrenching loss, ASU basketball fell in round one of the Pac-12 tournament to the Colorado Buffaloes 97-85.
The defeat brought uncertainty to the once-sure-fire bid into March Madness. ASU’s loss to the Buffs felt like a gut punch, and it was apparent on the bench. The first round matchup between the No. 8 and 9 seeds of the tournament turned out to be an excellent game.
ASU and CU traded leads 19 times throughout and neither team could grab a hold on the game until late. Prolific outside shooting for CU (13-of-21, 62 percent) certainly helped the cause, but was not the reason they won.
The real difference in this game was at the charity stripe.
The Buffaloes were magnificent from the line in their Pac-12 tourney debut hitting 18-of-20 on free-throws. ASU on the other hand struggled mightily.
The Sun Devils went 12-of-21 from the line, leaving nine points on the court instead of in the box score. Missed free-throws were at the center of ASU’s loss against Stanford to close the regular season; this time it was no different.
With the one-and-one in effect ASU continuously missed on the first shot, which gave Colorado the ball as if it were a turnover. Each and every missed free-throw down the stretch meant another free possession for the Buffaloes, and another heavy sigh from the ASU bench.
Tad Boyle‘s bench unit provided much needed offense in their time on the floor. The Buffaloes received stellar first half play from Lucas Siewert.
The sophomore big man poured in an efficient 12 points on 4-of-6 from the field. D’Shawn Schwartz pitched in with 10 points and four rebounds off the bench.
The real spark for the Buffs was Co-Sixth Man of the Year award winner Dominique Collier. The senior sixth man scored 17 points off the bench and made the most of minimal shot attempts, going 3-for-4 from deep and knocking down 8-of-10 free throws.
Colorado executed masterfully down the stretch hitting six of their last seven shots to close the game. Besides the missed free-throws, phenomenal performances from starters McKinley Wright IV (20 points/11 assists/eight rebounds), Tyler Bey (14 points) and George King (12 points) made all that bench production pay off.
Next: ASU Basketball: Loss puts tournament hopes in jeopardy
Despite the loss, ASU still has a chance to be apart of March Madness. With an immaculate non-conference resume and nice wins against the L.A. schools, the Sun Devils may still squeak into the Big Dance.