TEMPE, AZ. – The Arizona State men’s basketball team (11-6, 1-3) cruised to an 84-73 victory over Washington State Thursday night, marking the team’s first conference win of the season. Tra Holder recorded a game-high 20 points, en route to becoming the first Sun Devil since James Harden (07-08) to score 20+ in five-consecutive games.
"It’s great to get our first conference win," said head coach Bobby Hurley. "I think we have a chance to continue to play well and play better. We’re obviously happy to win, but I think there are still shots out there that we are capable of making."
TWEETABLES ABOUT @SUNDEVILHOOPS...
√ Tra Holder is averaging 21.0 points in past eight games and is 19-40 (.475) from three in that time.
√ Willie Atwood: 12.5 ppg. and 39-of-44 (.886) FTs in past 8 games
√ Obi Oleka is averaging 10.3 points in the past seven games
√ 274-of-375 (.731) from the free throw line in the past 16 games
√ Averaging 41.5 points in second half (33.8 in the first half)
√ ASU has now won the past six vs. WSU in Tempe
Four Sun Devils including Holder notched double-figures. Sophomore Kodi Justice led all players off the bench scoring 16 while adding four rebounds and four assists. Willie Atwood, who has now scored in double-digits 12 times this season, posted 15 points. Forward Obinna Oleka making his third start, notched his second career-double netting 11 while grabbing a team-high 10 boards.
Bobby Hurley’s squad capitalized on 25 Washington State fouls finishing at .848 percent (28-33) from the charity stripe. ASU is now 55-10 (.846) at home in the past four seasons including 22-7 (.759) in Pac-12 play.
Arizona State played ahead most of the contest, trailing only a period of just over two minutes. After pulling ahead, 15-13, at the 12:28 mark courtesy of a Justice three, the Sun Devils would lead the remainder of the game. Thanks in part to a 17-0 run that spanned over eight minutes of play, Arizona State led by as many as 17 in the first half, heading into recess with a 40-25 advantage.Washington State seemed poised to threaten Arizona State’s lead, opening the second period on 10-0 run, slashing the margin to just five, 40-35. Justice and company had different plans.
Taking advantage of the Cougar zone, an onslaught of Sun Devil threes, three of which belonged to the guard, would push the Sun Devils back ahead by 12 with 12:25 remaining. After the two teams traded shots over a span of three minutes, the Sun Devils would mount a 9-1 run, highlighted by a Justice steal in transition, which culminated in a behind the back pass from the guard to Oleka for the dunk.
At the 7:52 the Cougars would cut the Sun Devils lead to single digits one final time 63-54, before Arizona State would seal the deal outscoring Washington State 21-19 down the stretch.
UP NEXT… The Sun Devils play host to the Washington Huskies (11-5, 3-1), on Sat., Jan. 16 at 5 p.m. MT on Pac-12 Networks. Tim Healey and Kyle Dodd have the Sun Devil radio call on the Sun Devil Sports Radio Network (620 AM), presented by MidFirst Bank. ASU will try and sweep the Washingtons at home for the first time since the 2009-10 season and for just the second time in 13 seasons.
Arizona State won its only meeting with the Huskies during the 2014-15 season, 78-68 in Seattle.
COACH HURLEY QUOTES...
On Kodi’s confidence
"I was concerned, and forgive me for not knowing the exact two games, but he went 1-9 in one game and then the following game didn’t score again, so I was just curious to see where he was mentally and wanted to encourage him to stay aggressive and believe in his skills and trust his talent, and I didn’t really need to have that conversation because it didn’t really affect him, that’s the way he is. I really love coaching him and you can just see how much potential he has to keep getting better, and I love the creativity he shows with his passing. I think that was the one moment the building was at its peak today with the behind the back pass to Willie, besides the three-point shots that everyone is enjoying him make."
On if there was pressure from starting 0-3 in league play
"You’re always going to naturally feel that. We were hard on the guys early in the week. You can’t have losing become acceptable or comfortable. And then as the week progressed it was more about hopefully trying to build the guys up and letting them know that we played three really difficult games, two on the road, teams that are going to be near the top of the conference and we were only like minus five field goals in all three of those games from those three opponents. The free throw differential hurt us, and some other things, in losing those games, but we were pretty close to capitalizing and we just didn’t so it was nice to see us break through tonight."
On being new to the Pac-12
"I didn’t look at this game any different than Arizona coming here or playing at USC. You have to take each one of these games very seriously, there’s no games you can just show up and think you’re going to get a win. Washington State’s no different, they’ve already beat UCLA and they’ve been really competitive against other quality teams out of conference, and they have good players. You have to have guys that are willing to show up every night, and that’s what it’s going to take to win in the long haul in the league."
On what defensive improvements can be made
"I think just our energy and our activity with movement, hand movement and body movement. I think the best defensive game we’ve played this year was Texas A&M. We were getting deflections, we were active, we were challenging shots, we were forcing a really good team to miss shots. It was a similar situation with how we performed defensively here in the first half to create the margin that we did here."
On how players can take a “bad” shot and not be pulled
"I don’t feel like I want players looking over their shoulders. We’ll study the film and talk to our guys about shot selection and maybe other things you could have done if it is a poor shot attempt. We hope that by now guys understand what they are capable of doing on the floor and they don’t try to do something outside of that. Really the mistakes that infuriate us the most are defensive mistakes or lack of effort mistakes. Very rarely will a guy get pulled for those reasons."
On Savon Goodman taking some time to get back into it
"Savon was better with that and his defense and the rebounding. He’s still finding his way, but I’m confident he’ll get back to the level he was out prior to being out for awhile."
On concerns about Washington
"A lot of things. Obviously Andrews is a premiere player in the conference, is a really good guard, strong, can shoot, gets to the free throw line. They’re just different, their style they want to create turnovers with their athleticism, and they have a great core of young players. They play relentlessly, so I hope we get our rest the next 36 hours here. We’ve got to get ready for a really good team coming here."
WASHINGTON ST. HEAD COACH ERNIE...
"This conference is a really good conference. It really is. Arizona State battled just like I thought they were going to battle, with them needing a win and having the opportunity to get their first Pac-12 win at home. For my team, they are learning about life on the road, especially the new guys. I thought (ASU) played really hard and caused us some problems. In the first half we made some adjustments and went to the zone and that really got us back in the game. I thought that we had the ability to take control of the game when we cut (the lead) to five, but for whatever reason our air went away from us. And (ASU) took control of the game again. I was proud of the way our team battled back in the second half, but unfortunately we have that window in all of our losses where we tend to play bad, and that’s been the difference in those games for us."