Tra Holder added 17 and Torian Graham 13 for ASU (10-13; 3-7), who led for more than 10 minutes of the game and was up 60-59 with 3:37 left and had the game tied at 66 with 1:45 left.
"We've played a lot of good teams, and they are one of the best teams," said Bobby Hurley. "I was impressed with our defense. We didn't shoot it as well from behind the line, we had some in-and-outs, we're capable of doing a little better from that. Torian [Graham] did the best he could with Brooks, but he is so versatile with his ability to drive to the hoop and get fouled, and then he was hitting threes also. We couldn't provide a lot of help, because he was surrounded with shooters. They did a good job of getting that matchup and getting good results from it."
"You never want to feel like it's OK to lose accept that, but those guys fought their hearts out out there and as a coach, that is all you could hope for. We had some threes go in-and-out…we make a few more of those, and we're in great shape. We survived it because our defense was solid and we really guarded well in the first half. We knew they'd come at us and make a run, and we responded."