ASU Basketball: Sun Devils play “like gangsters,” dominate Stanford

ASU basketball defended the 3-point line and executed against Stanford’s defensive sets, defeating the Cardinal 80-62 to improve to 18-8 (9-5 Pac-12).

Bobby Hurley will do anything to see his team win.

A charismatic competitor that endorses a voice for his team and the referees’ whistles, the fourth-year coach isn’t afraid to change his approach, whether that be exhausting himself with 92 sprints before a rivalry game or benching his starting point guard after a first Pac-12 loss.

On Wednesday night, he decided a new change was in order. Normally pacing the sidelines in a lightly tinted button-up shirt, Hurley operated instead in pitch black, sporting a discrete identity that he chuckled at introducing.

“This is my ‘gangster’ shirt,’” he said.

By night’s end, Hurley admitted his team followed the lead and “played like gangsters,” commanding Stanford on both ends of the floor in a 80-62 rout at Wells Fargo Arena.

The Sun Devils only trailed for two minutes and 32 seconds of Wednesday’s contest, extending a double-digit lead in the second half despite a Cardinal defense that switched between man, zone and traps in the frontcourt and backcourt.

“We got a really good balance on offense,” Hurley said. “[I] couldn’t have really asked for a better effort tonight.”

More from Devils in Detail

• Sun Devils Primer: Game 2 vs Oklahoma State
• Sun Devil Insight: Quarterback Room
• Arizona State Spotlight: Kenny Dillingham
• Arizona State 2023 Season Opener: Off To A Good Start
• Arizona State vs USC Prediction and Promo (Expect Offensive Fireworks)

Six Sun Devils finished with seven points or more, including junior guard Rob Edwards, who tied Remy Martin with a team-high 16 points following a career high 28-point performance against Utah last Saturday.

Edwards has now tallied double figures in four of his last five contests. In his last six games tallying above 10 points, ASU is 6-0.

“It feels good,” he said. “[I’m] just trying to get confidence for March and tournament time. I’m trying to pick it up and help everybody else so we can get ready and win games.”

Minutes before tip-off, it was announced that the Cardinal would play without sophomore star KZ Okpala, who injured his ankle at practice earlier this week. While Stanford had won five of its last six contests, its offense suffered noticeably without the presence of its leading scorer.

Forward Oscar Da Silva and center Josh Sharma combined for 32 points on 13-of-22 shooting, but the bigs didn’t have a perimeter edge to stay consistent. Daejon Davis and Cormac Ryan shot 3-of-18, including 1-of-11 from 3-point range.

As a team, the Cardinal shot 2-of-21 from beyond the arc, a perimeter defensive effort the Sun Devils have striven for in recent weeks.

“Part of it was our pressure, and then what we were doing in ball screens, we were speeding them up some,” Hurley said. “We didn’t allow them to go side-to-side.”

A superior showing aside, there is always a negative to contradict great execution. Tonight, it was foul trouble.

Four Sun Devils finished with three or more personal fouls, including sophomore forward Romello White, who was disqualified in the 2:35 left in the contest. He finished with nine points and four rebounds.

Taeshon Cherry was also barred from Wednesday’s contest, collecting both a Flagrant 1 and Flagrant 2 foul following scuffles with Stanford players. In the latter instance, Cherry let his emotions and go tripped a defender who closed out on his 3-point attempt.

Hurley admitted this was something to “work with,” but he did note that Cherry’s fire is familiar.

“Taeshon is kind of like me as a freshman,” he said. “He’s got so much spirit and emotion and raw energy, and you got to try and harness it, and control it.”

Despite a depleted frontcourt, De’Quon Lake was ready in his second-to-last appearance at Wells Fargo Arena. He only scored three points, but it came off arguably the most electric play of the night – a between-the-leg pass from Martin that resulted in a 3-point play and built ASU’s lead to 20 with 40 seconds to go.

“It was instinct,” Martin said. “I just had to make sure it got to him. That’s my style, and I’m lucky to have a coach that lets me do that.”

In terms of its NCAA Tournament chances, tonight’s win was only Quadrant 3 for ASU. But the Sun Devils did add separation at third in the Pac-12 standings, including a gap of a full game on fourth-place Utah, who lost to Washington tonight.

Although Hurley won’t initiate discussions on his team’s NCAA Tournament future, his team avoided what easily could’ve been another trap game tonight. And in the process, his players performed like the ‘gangsters’ he knew they could be, playing at their standard, and not at the rate of the competition.

“He (Hurley) is a different guy, man,” Martin said. “But I love that. His energy today was amazing. When I see that and I hear about that, it just makes me go harder, and that’s what we did today.

“That’s a perfect example of ‘Sauce Hurley,’ right there.”

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