Bobby Hurley's 100th career coaching win sure was one to remember.
Sophomore Remy Martin matched a career-best with 21 points and Romello White added 16 as @SunDevilHoops rallied from an 18-point deficit to win at Georgia 76-74 on Saturday night. The Sun Devils trailed 47-29 with 1:48 remaining and 47-33 at the half but held Georgia to 9-of-25 (.360) in the second half and forced 19 Bulldog turnovers.
"We're a very determined group- a resilient group- and a lot of teams would've backed out of this one, maybe, at halftime," said Coach Bobby Hurley. "We circled the wagons, and it was great that it wasn't any more than 14 after half. We already knew this year that Mississippi State came back on us. We had a big lead and they made it very competitive, and then we end up winning that one. Nevada just recently had the the big lead, and they came back, so it was kind of like, 'Well, why not us?'
Martin gave the Sun Devils (8-1) their first lead of the game with a baseline jumper to make it 71-70 with 2:43 remaining. ASU led for just 2:38 of the game and there were only two ties and three lead changes.
REMY MARTIN TOP SCORING TILTS
21 at Georgia (12/15/18)
21 at #2 Kansas (12/10/17)
20 vs. Colorado/Las Vegas (3/7/18)
16 vs. #15 Miss. St./Las Vegas (11/19/18)
15 vs. Long Beach State (11/12/18)
15 at Oregon (2/22/18)
ASU was down 70-64 with 4:21 remaining but got a three-pointer from Taeshon Cherry (3:59), a steal and bucket by Remy Martin (3:11) and then Martin's jumper (2:43) to take the lead. It forced a turnover and Kimani Lawrence hit a three-pointer to make it 73-70 with just over two minutes left, but Georgia got two buckets to take a 74-73 lead with 25 seconds left.
Luguentz Dort then powered his way to a baseline bucket and then stole the inbounds pass after a Georgia timeout and hit one free throw. ASU forced Nicholas Claxton into a tough basline jumper to hold on.
LARGEST HALFTIME COMEBACK DEFICITS (1989-1990 TO PRESENT)
17, @Stanford 46, ASU 29--Feb. 12, 1994/ASU 71, @Stanford 69
16, IUPUI 34, ASU 18 (@Phoenix)--Dec. 14, 2008/ASU 59, vs. IUPUI 58 (OT)
16, New Mexico St. 45, ASU 29--Mar. 15, 2000/ASU 83, NMSU 77 (NIT)
16, Georgia 39, ASU 23--Dec. 29, 1989/ASU 62, Georgia 61
14, @Georgia 47, ASU 33--Dec. 15, 2018/ASU 76, Georgia 74
"It was about where we could attack and make a play," said Hurley on the final play. "[Georgia] was switching defenses a lot, especially late in the game, from zone to man. So, try- ing to get a call for each, there were some breakdowns on a couple of offensive possessions, but we locked down and defended. The fouls were the problem, and all the free throws in the first half and we didn't defend with enough discipline to not foul, and then we turned it around the second half. We held them to 27 points (in second half).
ASU was 8-22 in its previous 30 non-conference road games prior to Bobby Hurley taking over in the spring of 2015, but is 5-1 under Coach Hurley with the wins at San Diego State, UNLV, Creighton, No. 2 Kansas and Georgia.
ASU OOC ROAD GAMES UNDER COACH HURLEY/CROWDS
#20 ASU 76, Georgia 74 (Dec. 15, 2018)/9,028
#16 ASU 95, #2 Kansas 85 (Dec. 10, 2017)/16,300
ASU 74, San Diego State 63 (Dec. 10, 2016)/12,414
ASU 66, UNLV 56 (Dec. 16, 2015)/13,014
#5 Kentucky 72, ASU 58 (Dec. 5, 2015)/23,665
ASU 79, Creighton 77 (Dec. 2, 2015)/16,282
ZYLAN CHEATHAM ASU DOUBLE-DOUBLES
10/10 at Georgia (12/15/18)
13/10 vs. #6 Nevada (Dec. 7, 2018)
14/13/10 vs. Texas Southern (Dec. 1, 2018)
13/12/9 vs. Omaha (Nov. 28, 2018)
16/12/6 vs. McNeese State (Nov. 9, 2018)