ASU Basketball: Poor shooting night leads to Sun Devil defeat

After leading by as many as nine at Vanderbilt, ASU basketball went frozen from the field as the Sun Devils suffered their second loss of the season.

After amounting an 18-point comeback against Georgia, the No. 18 Arizona State Sun Devils dropped the second game of their SEC road trip 81-65 against Vanderbilt.

It was a rare SEC trip for the Sun Devils who rarely square off with SEC teams much less two within a week.

What is even rarer was the poor shooting shown from ASU in the bout as head coach Bobby Hurley’s squad shot a mere 32.3 percent from the field.

The poor shooting came after an opening 9-0 run from the Sun Devils as Vanderbilt missed their first six. ASU would quickly cool off, scoring only three points in the last 6:49 of the half leading to a 34-28 deficit at the break.

Vanderbilt was led by the three-point shot hitting 6-of-12 from beyond the arc in the first half of play and finishing the game at 12-of-28.

On the flip side, it was the Sun Devils struggling from both beyond the arc and from the floor as the trio of Kimani Lawrence, Remy Martin, and Luguentz Dort shooting a combined 9-for-37 on the night.

The poor performances for Martin and Dort were the most crucial for the team as Martin entered the game coming off a career-high tying 21 points against Georgia, while Dort came into the game as the fourth-highest freshman scorer in the nation at 20.9 points per game.

Leading the way for Vanderbilt was a wide variety of players as five Commodores scored in double digits with Phoenix Native and Corona Del Sol graduate Saben Lee leading the way at 14 points.

For ASU, the lone bright spots for the team were junior transfer Zylan Cheatham who had nine points with 14 rebounds and guard Rob Edwards who led the team in points with 14.

Cheatham, who leads the team in assists, finished the game with zero as the Sun Devils finished with only nine as a team after having a season-low eight against Georgia.

Both the assist and shooting woes will look to be ironed out as ASU will welcome No. 1 Kansas for a rematch in Tempe Saturday. The rematch has been over a year in the making after Arizona State walked away from Allen Fieldhouse with a rare road victory 95-85.

The matchup will feature almost a completely different Sun Devil team as this year’s squad leans more on their length and defensive play than last year’s team who heavily relied on the three-point shot, evident in their 14 makes from beyond the arc in last years upset.

Kansas enters the matchup after knocking off reigning national champion Villanova 74-71 to keep the Jayhawks at a perfect record of 9-0 to begin the 2018-19 season.

While the Sun Devils will enter the matchup most likely a heavy underdog after today’s defeat, if last season taught us anything.

Don’t ever count out a Bobby Hurley led team.