The Arizona State men's basketball team fell to the Princeton Tigers Saturday afternoon, 67-66. The Sun Devils finish non-conference play at 9-3 with victories over Mississippi State, Kansas and at Georgia.
Bobby Hurley's roster had trouble stringing together offensive possessions, struggling from the three-point line and around the rim.
"It definitely hurts, basketball humbles you real quick," said Zylan Cheatham.
Romello White had a huge first half as he went into the break with 13 points and 10 total rebounds (five offensive). White found himself in foul trouble midway through the second half, forcing him to sit.
White finished with his eighth double-double of his career and arguably played his best game of the year.
ROMELLO WHITE DOUBLE-DOUBLES (8)
18/11 vs. Princeton (12/29/18)
19/14 vs. Texas Southern (12/1/18)
13/11 vs. California (3/1/18)
10/14 at Washington (2/1/18)
10/11 at Colorado (1/4/18)
16/13 vs. USF (2/2/17)
14/11 vs. UC Irvine (11/9/17)
16/15 vs. San Diego State (11/14/17)
The Sun Devils did not record a field goal in the last four minutes of the half after Cheatham had a momentary injury scare which sucked the air right out of Wells Fargo. ASU shot 28.1% from the field and found themselves trailing 37-30 at half.
The second half much availed to the same low shooting percentages with scoring bursts by both teams.With 14:13 remaining in the second half, both teams were one of their last seven field goals.
ASU answered with 12-2 run over six minutes, forcing a Princeton timeout after the Tigers went 0-for-6 during the stretch.
The Sun Devils grit was on full display here as they wouldn't go away. Rob Edwards hit a pull up a three-pointer in transition, followed by a forced turnover which led to another three-pointer for Edwards. The team collectively shot a 2-15 from beyond the arc with Edwards making both within a span of 26 seconds.
Later, Remy Martin also had back to back buckets to extend the lead 61-57. Two major free throws were made by Princeton's Richmond Aririguzoh. This gave the Tigers the lead by one with 25 seconds to go.
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)
19 vs. Princeton (12/29/18)
16 vs. #15 Miss. St./Las Vegas (11/19/18)
15 vs. Long Beach State (11/12/18)
The Sun Devils mustered up multiple chances with their last possession just to fall short in heartbreaking fashion.
"There's a lot of parody in college basketball and if you're not ready and I didn't think I did a very good job of getting the team ready for the level the game was going to be, how hard they played in the first half," said Hurley. "They played harder than we did."
After the game, Edwards remained on the court in the then-empty Wells Fargo Arena shooting shots behind the arc. Opportunities await with conference play beginning Thursday.
The Arizona State Sun Devils are back on the court against Utah on Thursday, Jan. 3 at 6 p.m. MT. The game can be viewed on Pac-12 Networks and heard on ESPN 620 AM.