TEMPE, Ariz. – Playing in their first game as a ranked team since 2009, the No. 20 @SunDevilHoops squad moved to 7-0 for the first time since 1980-81 with a 75-57 win over San Francisco Dons Saturday night.
Romello White led the way for the team with a double-double, putting up 16 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. The team had four other players help contribute by reaching double-digits in points as well.
After the Dons started off the game with a three, the Devils went on a 25-3 run over a span of 11 minutes to balloon into a comfortable lead. With six minutes left to go in the half, the Devils built their lead to 21 points, the largest lead of the game. The Dons went on a quick 9-0 to trim the lead heading into the half.
In the second half, both teams started off slowly. San Francisco lessened the gap multiple times to the span of 12 points. Eventually, the Sun Devils pulled away from their opponents to end the game and give them another win in their perfect start to the season.
"It's hard but I felt like we did pretty well. We just need to make more stops in a row," said White after the game.
ROMELLO WHITE DOUBLE-DOUBLES
16/13 vs. San Francisco (12/2/17)
14/11 vs. UC Irvine (11/19/17)
16/15 vs. San Diego State (11/14/17)
Like the recent weather averages in Arizona, ASU's offense also cooled down to the 70s. The 75 points scored is the lowest the Sun Devils have scored this season and it breaks their six-game streak of scoring 90 points or more, a school record. Arizona State shot 46 percent (23-50) from the field and 30.8 percent (4-13) from three, both the lowest numbers for the Sun Devils in the young season.
Arizona State held the Dons to low shooting numbers and in foul trouble all the night. San Francisco shot a poor 28.6 percent (18-63) and an even poorer 27.5 percent (11-40) from three. The Dons also committed 30 fouls, having three players foul out of the game. It marked ASU's best defensive field goal percentage since it held LMU to .281 on Nov. 20, 2014.
WORST OPPONENT SHOOTING NIGHTS VS. ASU (2006-07 TO PRESENT)
.208/11-53 by Delaware State (Dec. 5, 2007)
.231/12-52 by Western Illinois (Nov. 13, 2009)
.246/14-57 by Oregon State (Feb. 11, 2010)
.250/12-48 by Delaware State (Dec. 12, 2009)
.255/14-55 by Cal Poly (Nov. 26, 2007)
.267/12-45 by Pepperdine (Nov. 23, 2008)
.281/16-57 by Loyola Marymount (Nov. 20, 2014)
.286/18-63 by San Francisco (Dec. 2, 2017)
This game comes a week after the Sun Devils defeated No. 15 Xavier in Las Vegas to become the Continental Invitational champion and climb their way to #20 in the Associated Press rankings. This win gives Arizona State their first victory as a ranked team since the 2008-2009 season, behind James Harden.
Up next, the Sun Devils travel to Los Angeles, Calif. to play in away game against St. Johns on Dec. 8, tipping off at 5 p.m. PT.
"We just have to keep going and keep doing what we're doing," said White. "It gets tougher. Way tougher."
QUOTES/NOTES....
CAREER FT% NUMBERS
Shannon Evans II: 320-392/.816
Tra Holder: 412-550/.749
Kodi Justice: 90-122/.738
COACH BOBBY HURLEY
"As much as everyone is talking about our offense to start the season, I was really pleased with the energy we defended with especially in the first half. To jump out to the lead we were able to get and to have them have to chase us the rest of the game, you just feel pretty good about that and really across the board throughout the game our defensive numbers were very good. When you play at this level you are not always going to play your cleanest or your best game on offense and you have got to be able to rely on the energy you play with at both ends of the floor. I thought we had the right focus and you're always concerned about this game because of the layoff (seven days between games), also with what we accomplished last weekend and the bounce back effect. Throughout different times of the year you are not going to have a chance to give your team a breather and I kind of gave my team a little bit of a breather this week. It was a very emotional weekend for us last weekend and really managed them well, so I'm not completely surprised we didn't play at our best level on offense, but we did enough this well to keep the game at a safe margin."
ON DIFFICULTY GETTING INTO A RHYTHM AFTER SAN FRANCISCO SHOT 40 THREES WITH A LOT OF LONG REBOUNDS…
"Yea definitely, and we did hold them to good percentages, but I thought the game was a little choppy between the free throws and a lot of fouls called. We gave up 15 offensive rebounds, we need to do a better job at that. That would be the one negative defensively."
ON DEFENSIVE PERFORMANCE AND DEFENSE COMPARED TO LAST YEAR…
"We gutted it out down there, especially early. I thought we were playing really fast, we used our speed on defense and sped them up some. Even the open shots they had early in the game were after they had to work through pressure in the possession, so a lot of good things. Remy again with his ball pressure and what a steal he had in the second half, how he timed that dribble was amazing. But credit to San Francisco, I think coach Smith is a very good coach and he had them well prepared to play us and it was probably as good as anybody has guarded our guards this year and they did a great job tonight defensively."
THOUGHT ON 7-0 START OVERALL…
"You appreciate where you are and there aren't many teams that are in our position at this point in the year and we haven't just stayed at home and played a bunch of bye games. We've gone out and played good teams and we've proven that we belong where we are and everyday there are more teams that are losing. We feel very happy to be where we are and knowing when we have a big week ahead of us it's another two-game set similar to what we faced in Las Vegas with our next two opponents."
ON ROMELLO WHITE'S INSIDE PRESENCE…
"His physical play, his rebounding takes pressure off the ball. He had, I believe, 13 rebounds and even when our guards get in the paint and miss a layup if his man goes to contest the layup is a free guy to get the offensive rebound and he can finish. He's going to shoot a few more free-throws this coming week I can promise you that (smiles)."
POINT TO IMPROVE ON DESPITE 7-0 START…
"I was a little concern about our defense. It is just not realistic to that you are going to score that many points every night and what if you don't have your 'A' game shooting the ball every night or your guards aren't finishing at the level they did in other game? Can you still find a way to win and get through a game and I thought it was good for us to have a game where we weren't at our very best and we still found a way to win this pretty easily."
IMPORTANCE ON GETTING BAD GAMES OUT OF THE WAY…
"If you are thinking about the right things and winning games, you are going to push through a sub-par offensive game and find a way to beat your opponent. That is what we did tonight and we've done it at other times in different way. This team has got a lot of heart and we've been in some deficits in other game and found a way to get back in it. I'm not surprised that we were able to know rely more on the defensive game."
ON TRA HOLDER'S STRUGGLES IN THE FIRST HALF AND SECOND HALF TURN AROUND…
"He didn't cleanly get by his man at the frequency he did in Las Vegas. If you were watching the film of the Xavier game, I'm sure he was public enemy number one for San Francisco in terms of having a focus on him. Again, other guys stepped up and our defense was solid."
ON BALANCING HAVING FIVE GUYS IN DOUBLE FIGURES…
"I like that. It's good for everybody, its good for the morale of the team to have the guys contribute and we hope to continue to do that. We still scored 75, it is not like we had 50. We didn't play great on offense and we missed free throws, but all and all did a pretty good job."
ON NEXT GAME AGAINST ST. JOHN'S…
"Our guards are going to get tested. They have a legitimate back court with (Marcus) LoVett and (Shamorie) Ponds and good athletes on the front lines. They are an up and coming team in the Big East and they've played well early in the season. They won pretty impressively today, so we expect a big game. It is two teams that are striving to be tournament teams and we'll have a good week to get ready."