By Cal Aboud, SDA Media Relations Student Assistant
TEMPE, Ariz. ? The Arizona State men's basketball team defeated No. 18 Texas A&M Aggies 67-54, to improve to 6-2 on the season Saturday night. Arizona State held an Aggies team who entered the contest ranked 21st nationally in field goal percentage (.500) to a season-low 31.1 percent (19-61) shooting. Texas A&M's 54-point outing also marks a season-low.
“Obviously a very impressive win for the program.” said head coach Bobby Hurley.? “I'm excited for our players, the work that they put in throughout the whole summer into the fall with our practices and facing a lot of adversity early in the season, a lot of tough games.? I think it's prepared these guys for this moment.? It's exciting to beat a ranked opponent here.? Certainly it's a win that kind of sends a message that we're getting close with what we're trying to do.? It's the best defense that I've been a part of since I've been here.? The guys were really up for the challenge at that end of the floor.? When you need to beat a team like Texas A&M with the talent that they have your defense has to be ready and I thought it was tonight.? We did a great job holding them to the percentages that they shot in the game.? Just loved how we came out in the first half.? The guys defensively, again, with great energy.”
Led by a career-high 15 points from Willie Atwood, the Sun Devils finished 36.4 percent (20-55) from the field, 33.3 percent (10-30) from beyond the arc, and 70.8 percent (17-24) from the foul line.
In total five Sun Devils contributed double-digit scoring outputs. Senior Savon Goodman recorded his third double-double of the young season posting ten points along with a game-high 12 rebounds. The high-motor forward has now accumulated eight double-doubles in his Sun Devil career. Tra Holder continues to thrive from the charity stripe and went 6-for-7 from the line, netting 13 total. Gerry Blakes added 11, while Kodi Justice played a vital role off the bench going 3-of-7 from beyond the arc, finishing with 10.
SAVON GOODMAN CAREER DOUBLE-DOUBLES
10/12 vs. Texas A&M (12/6/15)
21/16 vs. NC State (11/24/15)
13/12 vs.Belmont (11/16/15)
14/17 at Richmond (3/22/15)
20/12 vs. UCLA (2/18/15)
19/13 at Washington (2/15/15)
22/11 vs. Detroit (12/23/14)
24/12 vs. Lehigh (12/20/14)
Arizona State recorded 22 points on 14 Aggie turnovers, and benefitted from 16 bench points. The Sun Devils led for 35:58 total minutes in comparison to just 3:20 from Texas A&M.
Despite the Aggies opening the contest on a 5-0 run, Arizona State rallied. By virtue of a barrage of threes Atwood and Blakes, the Sun Devil jumped out to 8-6 lead at the 15:58 mark. From that point on Hurley's squad would lead the remainder of the contest. Outscoring the Aggies 25-13 over the final 15 minutes of the period the Sun Devils entered the half ahead 33-19.
The Sun Devils picked up were they left off in the second period jumping out to an 8-0 run. At the 14:46 mark Atwood connected on a contested three, moving Arizona State out to their largest lead of the game, 49-24. Late in the period Texas A&M managed a 14-3 run, cutting the deficit to eight with 2:42 remaining. ASU responded holding the Aggies scoreless to close the contest, capping a 67-54 victory.
Up next, the Sun Devils travel to Rupp Arena to take on the top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats (7-1) Sat., Dec. 12, at 1:15 p.m. MST. ??
Last year Bobby Hurley took his Buffalo squad into Lexington on Nov. 16 and led the Wildcats 38-33 at the half before falling 71-52. That trip remains in his mind for the type of games he wants to coach in, so when the opportunity to return to eight-time NCAA champion Kentucky was presented, he jumped at it. Since joining the Pac-10 in 1978-79, ASU has played eight top-10 teams in its non-conference slate outside of the NCAA Tournament.
Kentucky posted a 38-1 record in 2014-15. The Sun Devils are set for a two-year series with the Wildcats, traveling to Rupp Arena this year, and then meeting Kentucky in the Nassau, Bahamas in November of 2016. Kentucky (23,572 average attendance) trailed only Syracuse (23,854) in average home attendance last year.??
COACH HURLEY QUOTES
What kind of identity are you forming at this point?
I just think we have some tough guys and I think it started inside out.? I think we were good around the basket on defense in the first half with Eric and Obi and Savon and Willie and those guys.? They set the tone in there where it's not easy to score on us inside, and then Gerry's toughness on the perimeter guard.? One of the better wing players that we'll face this year in House.? He's a projected NBA guy so for him to play that type of defense on him was pretty special for Gerry tonight.
Satisfaction in non-conference schedule being so challenging?
I mean if you've looked at how we've played this year we've almost stepped up and play better in these type of games than some of our other opponents and sometimes it's human nature to get more excited to play a certain team.? I think that we have an older team; they want to taste what it's like to play in meaningful games and that's why we did what we did.? It looks like so far it's been a good call and we still have a lot more ahead of us.
What is the advantage of not having a “superstar” on this team?
The guys are playing very unselfishly.? Our assist totals have been going up the last two games, our turnovers, we've held them down.? We've talked about the balance on offense.? Coming into a game I don't know who the guy is going to be, and that's a little bit unsettling for me maybe not necessarily knowing, but it's also exciting to see who that guy could be.? To have five guys scoring double figures, again, I would imagine it's hard to game plan and know where the threat would be when we step on the floor offensively.?
How much focus do you put in on confidence and letting them play freely?
Well I mean we have a structure in place and we want to let the guys play within the structure and know that if they have an open shot that we have confidence that it's a good shot for us to take.? I don't feel like any of our players feel like, if anything, there were a couple times where I encouraged guys to want to shoot the ball in the second half.? Because when you have that big lead sometimes you just want to protect it and I don't know if we were playing as aggressive as we were in earlier stages of the game.
On Tra's floater basket
It's been his calling card of what he's been doing, Tra.? Down the stretch of games, closing out games, he's a playmaker, and he's playing fearlessly and again he came through with some big shots.?? And then he had to handle the ball the majority of the time against their pressure when they're trying to get back into the game.
How big was outside shooting?
It was really good particularly in the first half and then in early stages of the second half.? I don't think we shot it as well maybe the last 13 or 14 minutes.? I think a lot of those were open looks too, we just didn't connect.? I still don't feel we have shot it the way we're capable even though we had 10 threes tonight.
What have you liked about the bigger lineup?
I just think Willie has embraced it.? Willie is thriving in it because of his ability to go inside and rebound and score in the paint, and then he can also shoot so it's given us more size in the lane on defense.? It's just given us an edge in games when we're not shooting well, those guys all go to the glass real hard.? It's working out well.? I feel like I have confidence going to my bench the way Kodi's playing, Andre Spight, Obi the minutes he's giving us.? All these guys are really producing that I'm bringing in the game so it's pretty good.
Good to see the student's enthusiasm?
I hope that we can build on that and continue to get better, and people see that it's exciting to watch, particularly how we play in the first half against a really good team.? Certainly the students were behind us and it was great.? I would imagine that people would be more interested in taking a run over to Wells Fargo and see what's going on over here.
18 fouls, is that around the number you want to see?
I thought the way we started the second half, we were very aggressive and we didn't foul them and they fouled us a lot and that was big too.? I didn't really have that much of an issue with anything regarding officiating.
Why have Obi and Savon been so good on the glass despite being undersized?
Obi and Savon both play a lot bigger than their size.? They're very unique and they're tough guys, they're not soft so they're ready for whoever is in front of them, and they believe in themselves.? I'll line up with them any day, those two.
On the flow of the offense and the shot clock
I think as the game progressed, some of it's on me as I was trying to shorten the game and I was discouraging maybe the guys from attacking, and just trying to hold the margin and get longer possessions of offense, make them continue to guard us.? So I brought us deep into shot clocks more than the players did.? That's something, I'll take a hit on that.? Otherwise I felt like that was just normal.
Atwood on shooting percentage
Atwood: “I was rushing a lot of my shots at the beginning of the season... I wasn't shooting with confidence at first but now I just let it ride.
Justice on his confidence
Justice: “It's just to get the crowd going... After I hit a few shots, if I could get the crowd going with a little of the things I do here and there, that's all I'm trying to do, really.”
On playing scrappy
Atwood: “It was a big goal. Coach put defense in us a lot in practice. We pressure each other, go after each other, foul each other hard in practice... We try to be aggressive and get turnovers so we can make fast points.”
Holder on his play-making ability
Holder: “My coaches and teammates instill confidence in me. When I'm out there I feel comfortable. Everybody makes big plays. Willie [Atwood] had a great game. Kodi [Justice] had momentum going into the half. It's not me, it's everybody.
On coach Bobby Hurley's style
Atwood: “He really doesn't have restrictions on offense as long as we don't go out playing like we're at a park or something. He wants us to be comfortable out there. You've got to have players to make plays. That's how he wants us to play-- without looking over our shoulder every time we mess up.”
On team's recent success
Justice: “I think it's built a lot of confidence in us. Now we're just playing, going on to the next play because we know that there's eight, nine guys playing and we're all going to play. So don't worry about it. If you miss a shot here and there, just have the confidence to shoot the next one.”
On not having a "star"
Holder: “In my eyes, we're all stars. We all feel comfortable playing with each other so we don't have to rely on one person. I think we all bring something special to the table.”
On great student turnout
Justice: “I thought it was great. If we keep winning, we keep bringing a crowd out like that. That just helps us feed off of it. The crowd is like the sixth man out there for us. If we could do something on the court to get them going, that's what we'd do. So that's one reason why you'll see me pose, scream, throw my hands up-- just to get the crowd going. If you can get them on your side, it's hard [for the opposing team] to run an offense. If we could get something like that here, that would be great to build on.”
