Following a 21-point loss to Washington State, there was a sense of urgency for ASU basketball as they faced off with top-ranked Washington Saturday night.
A 33.8 percent shooting performance and an offense that was nowhere to be found were a big part of the reason why ASU found themselves down big in the loss to the Cougars. If they wanted to find their way back into the NCAA Tournament’s field of 64, they would need to respond in a big way Saturday.
And they did just that.
That response came in the form of the school’s best Pac-12 shooting performance since Feb. 2, 2013, at Washington, by the Sun Devils as they secured a 75-63 win against the Huskies Saturday night on 62 percent shooting.
A big factor was sophomore forward Romello White who finished the night with a team-high 17 points on 8-for-9 shooting.
“They get too far spread out on the top and leave the bottom open, and I feel like that is how I got a lot of my points,” White said. “Once we got it in the high post, we could hit the corner or hit me so it worked.”
Despite shooting at an extremely effective clip, the Sun Devil offense still struggled with costly turnovers. In fact, it was the most turnovers by an ASU team since March 20, 2013, against Detroit in the NIT. Tonight, the Devils turned the ball over a total of 24 times and as a result, 31.6 of their possessions ended that way.
Another thing that Arizona State did well was distributing the ball and finding open shots rather than taking contested jump shots. Of the 29 made shots, 18 of them were assisted on, which opened up the flow of the offense and allowed for a smoother flow on offense.
“I feel like we took our time,” White said. “We were attacking their zone, kicking it and getting it to the high post, and when we get it to high post, we usually score. So we just focus on getting it to the high post, feeding down low and everything was working good.”
If the Sun Devils want to make a name for themselves in the Pac-12, they will need to see more nights like this on a consistent basis. They get the chance to build on the momentum gained tonight next week as they hit the road to take on Colorado and Utah.
All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.