BY Evan Millstein, SDA Media Relations Student Assistant
The Arizona State men's basketball team (10-12; 3-6) fell at home to Washington State 91-83 Sunday afternoon in a game that featured eight lead changes and seven ties, but 22 fast break-points to only six for ASU proved to be the difference.
"I credit Washington State coming out here ready to play. They have good players and good experience," said Coach Bobby Hurley. "I thought that they were better than us in the first half even though we led at halftime. The way that we started the game was not great and it affected our substitution patters. It would have given guys like Jethro (Tshisumpa) an opportunity to get in the game, but since we started so poorly that was not the case. We couldn't play him as much as I would have liked to. We need to do a better job with our leaders early in games so we are not chasing so early. It came down to second half, our transition defense was bad and it has been bad in other games. This was a tough loss in terms of where we were and the progress that we made. This loss is going to sting."
ASU made 21-of-25 (.840) from the free throw line but was just 10-of-29 (.345) from three, while the Cougars were 10-of-19 from three and shot .526 (30-of-57) from the floor, including 17-of-29 (.586) in the second half.
Junior guard Tra Holder scored a career-high with 27 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 38 minutes of play. It marked his 11th 20-point game of the season.
TRA HOLDER 20+ GAMES 18 TOTAL/11 THIS YEAR
27 vs. Washington State (1/29/17)
26 at UCLA (1/9/16)
25 at Stanford (12/30/16)
24 vs. #9 Creighton (12/20/16)
24 vs. Cal Poly (11/13/16)
24 vs. #8 Arizona (1/3/16)
23 vs. Washington (1/25/17)
23 vs. Portland State (11/11/16)
22 at #3 UCLA (1/19/17)
22 vs. Central Arkansas (12/22/16)
22 vs. Citadel (11/23/16)
23 vs. CSU-Bakersfield (12/28/15)
22 vs. North Carolina State (11/23/15)
21 at USC (1/7/16)
20 at #16 Arizona (1/12/17)
20 vs. UNLV (12/31/16)
20 vs. #23 USC (2/12/16)
20 vs. Washington State (1/16/16)
Senior forward Obinna Oleka set the tone on the glass as he logged a game-high 11 rebounds. Oleka's 15 points and 11 rebounds was his 12th double-double on the season and 16th of his career.
Torian Graham (19 points) and Shannon Evans II (15 points) also scored in double figures for the maroon and gold.
Arizona State took its first lead after a 13-2 Sun Devil run with just under seven minutes in the first half that was ignited by a Roman Vila steal which lead to a Tra Holder layup on a fast break. ASU led 51-48 at the 15:50 mark, but WSU scored six straight.
The Sun Devils cut it to 54-53, 58-56 (12:46), 63-61 (10:38), 65-63 (9:42) but could get no closer than five in the final nine minutes.
Forward Josh Hawkinson paced Washington State with 31 points and 10 rebounds. Hawkinson's double-double was his 51st of his career and 10th on the season.
Arizona State heads to Oregon to face Oregon (Feb. 2) and Oregon State (Feb. 4) in Pac-12 matchups. Tip-off against Oregon is scheduled for 9 p.m. MT from Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon on Thursday night.
COACH HURLEY QUOTES
ON JOSH HAWKINSON
"We knew (Josh) Hawkinson would be a problem because of his size and his skills with our smaller lineup. I don't think we really took advantage of him...He guarded WELL for a big guy, he moved fairly well. He truly outran our whole team."
ON THE LACK OF TRANSITION DEFENSE
"We do it all the time. We do it in practice and in games. We watch the films in order to make the adjustments by talking about the urgencies to sprint back regardless of a positive or negative play and its just not there. This happens, its been happening and it is the reason why our field goal percentage defense is so bad. It is something that we can control. There is so much talent, good individual players and high-level players. We can take a big step forward like we did on Wednesday positioning ourselves to get momentum and then we don't take another step. As bad as the defense was today in the transition defense, we just took some awful shots in the second half. We plan to work on our shot selection moving forward."
ON WHO NEEDS TO BE A TEAM LEADER
"The team leader is me. I have to take responsibility when my team does not play well and needs to play better. Our leadership starts here. Getting the guys ready to do whats necessary to win. The five players who start the game are the leaders and they are the ones who need to take ownership and responsibility for what happens on that court. They are the ones with the most minutes on the court having good offensive seasons individually. We have guys getting great individual success, but it has to translate into making plays at key times in games so we have a chance to win. The leadership core is me, then the five guys that are experienced in playing at a high level game at times like this."
The Arizona State men's basketball team (10-12; 3-6) fell at home to Washington State 91-83 Sunday afternoon in a game that featured eight lead changes and seven ties, but 22 fast break-points to only six for ASU proved to be the difference.
"I credit Washington State coming out here ready to play. They have good players and good experience," said Coach Bobby Hurley. "I thought that they were better than us in the first half even though we led at halftime. The way that we started the game was not great and it affected our substitution patters. It would have given guys like Jethro (Tshisumpa) an opportunity to get in the game, but since we started so poorly that was not the case. We couldn't play him as much as I would have liked to. We need to do a better job with our leaders early in games so we are not chasing so early. It came down to second half, our transition defense was bad and it has been bad in other games. This was a tough loss in terms of where we were and the progress that we made. This loss is going to sting."
ASU made 21-of-25 (.840) from the free throw line but was just 10-of-29 (.345) from three, while the Cougars were 10-of-19 from three and shot .526 (30-of-57) from the floor, including 17-of-29 (.586) in the second half.
Junior guard Tra Holder scored a career-high with 27 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 38 minutes of play. It marked his 11th 20-point game of the season.
TRA HOLDER 20+ GAMES 18 TOTAL/11 THIS YEAR
27 vs. Washington State (1/29/17)
26 at UCLA (1/9/16)
25 at Stanford (12/30/16)
24 vs. #9 Creighton (12/20/16)
24 vs. Cal Poly (11/13/16)
24 vs. #8 Arizona (1/3/16)
23 vs. Washington (1/25/17)
23 vs. Portland State (11/11/16)
22 at #3 UCLA (1/19/17)
22 vs. Central Arkansas (12/22/16)
22 vs. Citadel (11/23/16)
23 vs. CSU-Bakersfield (12/28/15)
22 vs. North Carolina State (11/23/15)
21 at USC (1/7/16)
20 at #16 Arizona (1/12/17)
20 vs. UNLV (12/31/16)
20 vs. #23 USC (2/12/16)
20 vs. Washington State (1/16/16)
Senior forward Obinna Oleka set the tone on the glass as he logged a game-high 11 rebounds. Oleka's 15 points and 11 rebounds was his 12th double-double on the season and 16th of his career.
Torian Graham (19 points) and Shannon Evans II (15 points) also scored in double figures for the maroon and gold.
Arizona State took its first lead after a 13-2 Sun Devil run with just under seven minutes in the first half that was ignited by a Roman Vila steal which lead to a Tra Holder layup on a fast break. ASU led 51-48 at the 15:50 mark, but WSU scored six straight.
The Sun Devils cut it to 54-53, 58-56 (12:46), 63-61 (10:38), 65-63 (9:42) but could get no closer than five in the final nine minutes.
Forward Josh Hawkinson paced Washington State with 31 points and 10 rebounds. Hawkinson's double-double was his 51st of his career and 10th on the season.
Arizona State heads to Oregon to face Oregon (Feb. 2) and Oregon State (Feb. 4) in Pac-12 matchups. Tip-off against Oregon is scheduled for 9 p.m. MT from Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon on Thursday night.
COACH HURLEY QUOTES
ON JOSH HAWKINSON
"We knew (Josh) Hawkinson would be a problem because of his size and his skills with our smaller lineup. I don't think we really took advantage of him...He guarded WELL for a big guy, he moved fairly well. He truly outran our whole team."
ON THE LACK OF TRANSITION DEFENSE
"We do it all the time. We do it in practice and in games. We watch the films in order to make the adjustments by talking about the urgencies to sprint back regardless of a positive or negative play and its just not there. This happens, its been happening and it is the reason why our field goal percentage defense is so bad. It is something that we can control. There is so much talent, good individual players and high-level players. We can take a big step forward like we did on Wednesday positioning ourselves to get momentum and then we don't take another step. As bad as the defense was today in the transition defense, we just took some awful shots in the second half. We plan to work on our shot selection moving forward."
ON WHO NEEDS TO BE A TEAM LEADER
"The team leader is me. I have to take responsibility when my team does not play well and needs to play better. Our leadership starts here. Getting the guys ready to do whats necessary to win. The five players who start the game are the leaders and they are the ones who need to take ownership and responsibility for what happens on that court. They are the ones with the most minutes on the court having good offensive seasons individually. We have guys getting great individual success, but it has to translate into making plays at key times in games so we have a chance to win. The leadership core is me, then the five guys that are experienced in playing at a high level game at times like this."