An emphatic dunk from Remy Martin started off the scoring in the Arizona State Sun Devils (1-1) 2019-20 home opener, and from there it was all ASU.
The Devils collected 46 rebounds on the way to a 90-49 rout of the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils (0-3) behind 23 points from Rob Edwards.
ROB EDWARDS TOP SUN DEVIL SCORING TILTS
28 at Utah (2/16/19)
23 vs. Central Connecticut State (11/14/19)
20 vs. Colorado/China (11/9/19)
19 vs. Arizona (1/31/19)
16 vs. California (2/24/19)
16 vs. Stanford (2/20/19)
15 vs. Oregon (3/15/19)
15 vs. UCLA 3/14/19)
15 vs. #1 Kansas (12/22/18)
The 49 points by Central Connecticut was the fewest given up by ASU in the Bobby Hurley era and the fewest given up in ASU's past 148 games, dating to a 79-44 win at California on Jan. 22, 2015. ASU had 14 steals, its second-most in the past decade.
FEWEST POINTS VS. ASU UNDER BOBBY HURLEY
49 by Central Connecticut State (Nov. 14, 2019)
52 by McNeese State (Nov. 9, 2018)
53 by California (March 1, 2018)
53 by Kennesaw State (Nov. 18, 2015)
SUN DEVIL MOST STEALS PAST 10 SEASONS (2010-11 TO 2019-20)
15 vs. Washington State (Feb. 7, 2019)
14 vs. Central Connecticut State (Nov. 14, 2019)
14 vs. Cornell (Nov. 20, 2012)
14 vs. Oregon State (Mar. 5, 2011)
"I think we are a bit of a work in progress, that would be my best call here after tonight," ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said after the win. "Some bright spots, some things to be pleased about, and some others that we have to improve and get better."
Martin continued to put up consistent numbers for his coach and teammates, posting 14 points, two rebounds, three assists and two steals on the night.
CCSU got on the board first, after that ASU rattled off five consecutive baskets to set the tone for the remainder of the game.the chef is cooking ?????
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) November 15, 2019
Remy's got 7?? points in 7?? minutes to open the second half
Sun Devils 52 ? Blue Devils 29 | 2H 13:00 pic.twitter.com/hAka8F5x0K
After finishing second among all scorers in ASU's opening night loss, redshirt senior guard Rob Edwards kept his momentum rolling, putting up 23 points and four rebounds in the win. Edwards had 15 at half, drilling five three-pointers in the opening 20 minutes.
The presence of big-man Romello White (11 rebounds, three blocks) was also felt after the 6-foot 9-inch forward missed the season opener in Shanghai. The Sun Devils out-rebounded Blue Devils 46-39..@robedwardss2's already got 3?? threes in the first half ??
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) November 15, 2019
Sun Devils 31 ? Blue Devils 19 | 1H 4:00 pic.twitter.com/ne4rT4oFzN
ROMELLO WHITE TOP REBOUNDING GAMES
15 vs. San Diego State (Nov. 14, 2017)
14 vs. Texas Southern (Dec. 1, 2018)
14 at Washington (Feb. 1, 2018)
13 vs. San Francisco (Dec. 2, 2018)
11 vs. Central Connecticut State (Nov. 14, 2019)
11 vs. Princeton (Dec. 29, 2018)
11 vs. California (Mar. 1, 2018)
11 at Colorado (Jan. 4, 2018)
11 vs. UC Irvine (Nov. 19, 2018)
After allowing 81 points to No. 25 Colorado on opening night, ASU locked things down in the back court, holding the Blue Devils to just 49 points on 17-for-57 shooting. The Sun Devils also tallied five blocked shots and 14 steals as they kept CCSU
bottled up all game.
"We really held them down,"There probably haven't been a ton of games since I've been here that we held a team under 50 points, you know no matter who you're playing it's good."
Following a performance in China that left Sun Devil fans excited for more, it was Freshman guard Jaelen House who wound up stealing the show, recording 14 points, four rebounds, five assists and four steals in front of family and friends, including his dad, Sun Devil great Eddie House..@jaelenhouse2 old school 3?? pic.twitter.com/krcdLSPODL
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) November 15, 2019
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) November 15, 2019
"I always have confidence," House said bluntly after being asked about any home opener jitters.
Jaelen-to-Jalen ??
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) November 15, 2019
??: @Pac12Network pic.twitter.com/ruYZMh8xmI
The Sun Devils have now won four consecutive home openers and 12 of their last 13 dating back to the 2007-08 season. ASU moves to 2-0 all-time vs. Central Connecticut State, with their other win coming on Dec. 29, 2008 (84-47).
The Sun Devils will remain at home for this Sundays tilt against the Rider University Broncs, tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. MT (Nov. 17) from Desert Financial Arena and will be available to watch on Pac-12 Networks.
ASU HEAD COACH BOBBY HURLEY QUOTES
"I think we are a bit of a work in progress that would be my best call here after tonight. Some bright spots, some things to be pleased about, and some others that we have to improve and get better. Rob, I'm proud of him I'm happy for him he's worked extremely hard in the offseason working on getting his back right, he feels great he's moving great and he's been terrific these first two games. His threes in the first half I thought were very important for us to build the lead that we built I liked him hitting that momentum three heading into the half which gave us a twenty point lead, a comfortable margin."
ON DEFENSIVE COMMUNICATION
"I mean we held them down, there probably hadn't been a ton of games since I've been here that we held a team under 50 points you know no matter who you're playing we turned them over a bit. I wasn't particularly happy with the offensive rebounds we got to lessen that if we can but they did miss a lot of shots so they had a lot of opportunities to get an offensive rebound otherwise things to be worried about maybe just didn't like how we shot poorly from three in the second half. Sometimes in a game that's lopsided, you can just lose your edge a little bit and not concentrate as much. I believe as we grow and develop it could be possibly the best three-point shooting team that I've coached but it hasn't really developed yet to that point but hopefully, we get more time to practice over the next ten days. Obviously two days to prepare for Rider then another full week of practice."
ON JAELEN HOUSE IMPACT
"His on the ball defense and his instincts on defense he had a play in the first half were he looked like a defensive back and read their dribbler being out of control and he was off the ball then all of a sudden he stole if from their guard and we were going the other way. Ya know, he did that against Colorado too in the first half and he had a big steal in the second half of that game and didn't convert the open layup and you saw that again today, it's a big reason why we look at the stat sheet and see 14 steals, that's a lot for a team and it's Jalen's impact of on the ball defense and his instincts off the ball."
ON ROMELLO WHITE DOUBLE DIGIT REBOUNDS
"He's a guy like when the ball was thrown back to him going down the center of the lane if this was three weeks ago he would have torn the rim down but that's what happens when you miss ten days of practice and you go out here and play. The same thing for Taeshon, those repetitions are very valuable and they didn't get them so anything positive that those guys did to me today would have been a surprise just because we had no time to work with them on the floor."
ON THE IMPACT OF MINUTES/COMING BACK OFF THE CHINA TRIP
"Well, you like to generate the lead that you generate so you can manage guys. One of my biggest concerns coming into the game was just the impact of the trip, knowing how they feel, knowing how I feel is not great so I can imagine how they are trying to run up and down the floor like that so just being able to rest guys more and not having to have them play the last seven or eight minutes was important for other guys that haven't gotten as much time it's important to play and really helps when you can create that kind of margin."
CCSU HEAD COACH DONYELL MARSHALL QUOTES
On the lesson he took from tonight:
"Right now, that we're selfish. We don't play together. It was about themselves. It's teams that play together, that look for each other, that talk on defense and help each other out are the ones that get the upsets. Teams that play selfish are the ones that get blown out like we did."
On what was going right during their fight half run:
"If you look at that run, we were sharing the basketball. We were getting easy shots. I guess we thought we were back in it and they were going to change at that point in time. We come down, we take bad shots and they were able to get back up."
On the benefit of playing against a major conference team:
"You know going into the game it's going to be tough. You're going to take some positives. You're trying to get better as a team, but these are the games that you hope prepare you for when you get into conference play. When you're playing selfish, it's not going to help you prepare for the conference because no matter who play, you can't have seven assists and 20 turnovers. It's just not going to work."
ROMELLO WHITE TOP REBOUNDING GAMES
15 vs. San Diego State (Nov. 14, 2017)
14 vs. Texas Southern (Dec. 1, 2018)
14 at Washington (Feb. 1, 2018)
13 vs. San Francisco (Dec. 2, 2018)
11 vs. Central Connecticut State (Nov. 14, 2019)
11 vs. Princeton (Dec. 29, 2018)
11 vs. California (Mar. 1, 2018)
11 at Colorado (Jan. 4, 2018)
11 vs. UC Irvine (Nov. 19, 2018)
SUN DEVIL 30+ POINT WINS UNDER BOBBY HURLEY
41, 90-49 vs. Central Connecticut State (Nov. 14, 2019)
39, 104-65 vs. Pacific (Dec. 22, 2017)
38, 91-53 vs. Kennesaw State (Nov. 18, 2015)
36, 98-62 vs. Central Arkansas (Dec. 22, 2016)
35, 97-62 vs. Northern Arizona (Nov. 17, 2017)
34, 95-61 vs. Longwood (Dec. 19, 2017)
32, 90-58 vs. Long Beach State (Nov. 12, 2018)
31, 84-53 vs. California (Mar. 1, 2018)