Another double-double for Romello White, another win for the Arizona State men's basketball team (6-2) as they defeated Louisiana 77-65 Saturday night at Desert Financial Arena.
"Good things happened we he had the ball...the bottom line are his percentages. Some of his really good passes out of the post he went to the offensive glass and he battled in the paint to rebound," said head coach Bobby Hurley.
After recording his first double-double of the season Tuesday night in the win at San Francisco, White recorded his first back-to-back double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds, both season-highs. Both the 19 points and 14 rebounds tie his second-highest marks in their category in his career.
ROMELLO WHITE CAREER DOUBLE-DOUBLES (10)
19/14 vs. Louisiana (12/7/19)
14/11 at San Francisco (12/3/19)
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 (12/2/17)
14/11 vs. UC Irvine (11/9/17)
16/15 vs. San Diego State (11/14/17)
ROMELLO WHITE TOP REBOUNDING GAMES
15 vs. San Diego State (Nov. 14, 2017)
14 vs. Louisiana (Dec. 7, 2019)
14 vs. Texas Southern (Dec. 1, 2018)
14 at Washington (Feb. 1, 2018)
13 vs. San Francisco (Dec. 2, 2017)
ASU had two other players reach double digits in points, Rob Edwards and Remy Martin. Edwards scored 17 while Martin put up 15.
The Sun Devils pushed out to an early lead in the first half, leading by 10 points within eight minutes of the game. Arizona State continued the momentum and went into halftime leading 38-26 as Rob Edwards and Romello White led the team in scoring with 11 points each.
Arizona State continued building their lead in the second half, going up as much as 19 points over the Ragin' Cajuns. After a personal 7-0 run by Taeshon Cherry, the Sun Devils led 67-51.
ASU outrebounded Louisiana 42-34, including 16 offensive rebounds. The Sun Devils also had 10 steals and forced a total of 20 turnovers, scoring 22 points off those turnovers.
BUCKET BEFORE THE HALF: Coming off a timeout with five seconds left in the first half, Remy Martin drove to the basket and dished it to Teashon Cherry who hit a reverse layup at the buzzer to build ASU's lead to 38-26 lead at halftime.
UP NEXT: The Sun Devils take on Prairie View A&M Wednesday, Dec. 11, at Desert Financial Arena, tipping off at 8 p.m. MT on Pac-12 Network.
COACH HURLEY QUOTES
ON THE SECOND HALF EFFORT
"I just think we got baited into shooting some poor shots we did have some open threes that we did miss badly so again when you look at 8-26, guys just have to start hitting from three especially when you have a guy down low as productive as Romello. If Romello is going to be there they got to connect at a better rate. I thought our defense was poor relative to how we guarded in the first half and most of the season and we just allowed them to go off the bounce and beat us and put them on the free throw line. It was just a really poor defensive effort in the second half."
ON TEAM DEPTH
"Well, it depends, If you have a lot of guys that's great if you have a lot of guys playing well that's really whats good. To figure out how to find enough guys that are contributing and playing at a high level than the depth is wonderful but if you have too many guys not playing well then what is it you just have a lot of guys not playing well."
ON SECOND HALF OFFENSE
"The first half considering they were chopping the game on us and going late in clock for us to have 38 and we shot a good percentage, I was happy with our offense but we were 9-16 from the free-throw line and we missed the front end of a one and one on one of those so that's another six or seven points that we would have had which would have made it a really good offensive first half. Second half we made all our free throws and we shot poor from the field so we got to figure out how to not be so schizophrenic during the game."
ON MAKING IMPROVEMENTS
"I think we have to start getting it in gear and start trying to strive to play well so regardless of what the score is you feel good about yourself after the game and as much as we've been winning I just haven't felt like 'wow this really looks great' so we have to get back to the drawing board in practice and play better. We've played against good teams and already won, beating Saint Johns and winning on the road so we've done some nice things but as a coach, you do have a big-picture look at the whole year and what you hope for your team and right now we're not developing like I think our staff would be at this point."
QUOTING LOUISIANA COACH BOB MARLIN
ON THE PLAY IN THE SECOND HALF
"Points off turnovers. We talk about taking care of the basketball, valuing the basketball. Our point guard, Trajan Wesley, had four turnovers on the year, 20 assists and four turnovers. He has four turnovers in the first half, we felt like he got pushed around a little bit and got called for traveling. But bottom line is we threw some uphill passes and they were picked. They got 18 points off of our turnovers in the first half, score is 18-0. Second half, it was 5-4 us. That was the main thing at halftime and I felt like we controlled the tempo the whole game. Arizona State has an explosive team, they are obviously more talented than we are, bigger than we are and we were able to hold them in the seventies. Outside of the last two layups they got in the last minute to get to 77, I thought we did a good job defensively."
"Good things happened we he had the ball...the bottom line are his percentages. Some of his really good passes out of the post he went to the offensive glass and he battled in the paint to rebound," said head coach Bobby Hurley.
After recording his first double-double of the season Tuesday night in the win at San Francisco, White recorded his first back-to-back double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds, both season-highs. Both the 19 points and 14 rebounds tie his second-highest marks in their category in his career.
ROMELLO WHITE CAREER DOUBLE-DOUBLES (10)
19/14 vs. Louisiana (12/7/19)
14/11 at San Francisco (12/3/19)
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 (12/2/17)
14/11 vs. UC Irvine (11/9/17)
16/15 vs. San Diego State (11/14/17)
ROMELLO WHITE TOP REBOUNDING GAMES
15 vs. San Diego State (Nov. 14, 2017)
14 vs. Louisiana (Dec. 7, 2019)
14 vs. Texas Southern (Dec. 1, 2018)
14 at Washington (Feb. 1, 2018)
13 vs. San Francisco (Dec. 2, 2017)
ROMELLO WHITE TOP SCORING TILTS
25 vs. Northern Arizona (11/17/17)
22 vs. St. John's at STAPLES (12/8/17)
21 at Washington State (2/4/18)
19 vs. Louisiana (12/7/19)
19 vs. UCLA (3/13/19)
19 vs. Colorado (1/5/19)
19 vs. Texas Southern (12/1/18)
19 at Stanford (1/17/18)
19 vs. Kansas State in LV (11/23/17)
.@robedwardss2 + @mellosworld_23 = ?? ?? ??
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) December 8, 2019
?? @Pac12Network pic.twitter.com/THPBS434no
ASU had two other players reach double digits in points, Rob Edwards and Remy Martin. Edwards scored 17 while Martin put up 15.
The Sun Devils pushed out to an early lead in the first half, leading by 10 points within eight minutes of the game. Arizona State continued the momentum and went into halftime leading 38-26 as Rob Edwards and Romello White led the team in scoring with 11 points each.
Arizona State continued building their lead in the second half, going up as much as 19 points over the Ragin' Cajuns. After a personal 7-0 run by Taeshon Cherry, the Sun Devils led 67-51.
Seven quick ones for Tae ?? in the last minute and a half.
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) December 8, 2019
Arizona St. 67 ? Louisiana 51 | 2H ? 6:46 pic.twitter.com/t7AoNJUJW8
ASU outrebounded Louisiana 42-34, including 16 offensive rebounds. The Sun Devils also had 10 steals and forced a total of 20 turnovers, scoring 22 points off those turnovers.
BUCKET BEFORE THE HALF: Coming off a timeout with five seconds left in the first half, Remy Martin drove to the basket and dished it to Teashon Cherry who hit a reverse layup at the buzzer to build ASU's lead to 38-26 lead at halftime.
UP NEXT: The Sun Devils take on Prairie View A&M Wednesday, Dec. 11, at Desert Financial Arena, tipping off at 8 p.m. MT on Pac-12 Network.
COACH HURLEY QUOTES
ON THE SECOND HALF EFFORT
"I just think we got baited into shooting some poor shots we did have some open threes that we did miss badly so again when you look at 8-26, guys just have to start hitting from three especially when you have a guy down low as productive as Romello. If Romello is going to be there they got to connect at a better rate. I thought our defense was poor relative to how we guarded in the first half and most of the season and we just allowed them to go off the bounce and beat us and put them on the free throw line. It was just a really poor defensive effort in the second half."
ON TEAM DEPTH
"Well, it depends, If you have a lot of guys that's great if you have a lot of guys playing well that's really whats good. To figure out how to find enough guys that are contributing and playing at a high level than the depth is wonderful but if you have too many guys not playing well then what is it you just have a lot of guys not playing well."
ON SECOND HALF OFFENSE
"The first half considering they were chopping the game on us and going late in clock for us to have 38 and we shot a good percentage, I was happy with our offense but we were 9-16 from the free-throw line and we missed the front end of a one and one on one of those so that's another six or seven points that we would have had which would have made it a really good offensive first half. Second half we made all our free throws and we shot poor from the field so we got to figure out how to not be so schizophrenic during the game."
ON MAKING IMPROVEMENTS
"I think we have to start getting it in gear and start trying to strive to play well so regardless of what the score is you feel good about yourself after the game and as much as we've been winning I just haven't felt like 'wow this really looks great' so we have to get back to the drawing board in practice and play better. We've played against good teams and already won, beating Saint Johns and winning on the road so we've done some nice things but as a coach, you do have a big-picture look at the whole year and what you hope for your team and right now we're not developing like I think our staff would be at this point."
QUOTING LOUISIANA COACH BOB MARLIN
ON THE PLAY IN THE SECOND HALF
"Points off turnovers. We talk about taking care of the basketball, valuing the basketball. Our point guard, Trajan Wesley, had four turnovers on the year, 20 assists and four turnovers. He has four turnovers in the first half, we felt like he got pushed around a little bit and got called for traveling. But bottom line is we threw some uphill passes and they were picked. They got 18 points off of our turnovers in the first half, score is 18-0. Second half, it was 5-4 us. That was the main thing at halftime and I felt like we controlled the tempo the whole game. Arizona State has an explosive team, they are obviously more talented than we are, bigger than we are and we were able to hold them in the seventies. Outside of the last two layups they got in the last minute to get to 77, I thought we did a good job defensively."
ON CUTTING DOWN THE OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS
"[We] tried to. Romello White had a heck of a game, he is a grown man and we had our starting small forward was injured last night in practice and didn't play today. That didn't help us and he is our third leading scorer and third leading rebounder. But White played well but we were able to get to their bodies a little bit better late in the game and block them out and eliminate some second chance opportunities. They didn't shoot the ball well tonight, they did a good job on the glass."
TAKE AWAYS FROM THE GAME
"It was important that we showed some fight, we got down. Our goal was to win a second half and then I think we ended up tied, again if we didn't give up those two layups late last minute we would of done fine in the second half."