For the third straight game, junior Romello White tallied a double-double to lead the Arizona State men's basketball squad (7-2) to an 88-79 win over Prairie View Wednesday night.
"I thought Romello, when he had chances, was excellent tonight," said head coach Bobby Hurley. "I feel better about this game than the last game. I feel better about our team and how we played. Romello is getting the ball a lot. He's getting the ball...we are thinking about getting him the ball...the coaches are talking to the team about getting him the ball."
Just last Tuesday White recorded his first double-double of the season in the win against San Francisco and White has not stopped since as he tallied 14 points and 16 rebounds against the Panthers. His 16 rebounds on the night is the highest of his career.
In their fourth win in a row, the Sun Devils had three other players reach double-digits. Remy Martin (21), Rob Edwards (14) and Alonzo Verge Jr. (20).
ROMELLO WHITE PAST THREE GAMES
15.7 PPG
13.7 RPG
15-18 (.833) FGs
17-24 (.708) FTs
REMY MARTIN 20+ SCORING TILTS (12)
33 at Princeton (11/26/19)
31 vs. Arizona (1/31/19)
27 at Arizona (3/9/19)
24 at California (1/9/19)
23 vs. Colorado/China (11/9/19)
22 vs. Utah (1/3/19)
21 vs. Prairie View A&M (12/11/19)
21 vs. #7 Virginia (11/23/19)
21 at Georgia (12/15/18)
21 at #2 Kansas (12/10/17)
20 vs. Rider (11/17/19)
20 vs. Colorado/Las Vegas (3/7/18)
Double-double » SECURED ????@mellosworld_23 up to 11 pts and 14 Reb on the night.
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) December 12, 2019
Sun Devils 72 ? Panthers 54 | 2H ? 9:35 pic.twitter.com/rH2im2nmXU
ROMELLO WHITE TOP REBOUNDING GAMES
16 vs. Prairie View (Dec. 11, 2019)
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 CAREER DOUBLE-DOUBLES (11)
14/16 vs. Prairie View (12/11/19)
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)
REMY MARTIN: FIRST TWO YEARS/2019-20
FG (PCT): 246-582 (.422)/61-130 (.469)
3PT (PCT): 66-200 (.330)/15-40 (.375)
PPG: 11.3/20.0
Another Sun Devil forward made an appearance Wednesday night. After only appearing in six games during the 2018-19 season due to ongoing injuries, senior forward Mickey Mitchell stepped onto the court for the first time since Dec. 7, 2018, vs. Nevada.
In the first half, ASU caused 15 Prairie View turnovers which allowed them to take a seven-point lead into halftime. The squad returned from the break with back-to-back buckets from Edwards to extend the Sun Devil lead to 48-36.
Both squads were physical in the late night match, with the Sun Devils shooting 71 percent on the night in 51 free throw attempts, tied for the third highest in Sun Devil basketball history. The 37 points they made from the line is fourth-highest in school history and is the most since they shot a school-record 57 against Utah on Nov, 27, 2002. Five players were above 70 percent on the line for the night.
.@robedwardss2 not wasting any time.
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) December 12, 2019
Back-to-back buckets from Rob has us up 12 to open the half.
?? @Pac12Network pic.twitter.com/TPJZo8sSDQ
Pressing the issue. ??
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) December 12, 2019
» Sun Devils have forced 17 PVAMU turnovers on the night. pic.twitter.com/96P9HFMnGg
White went up for the lay up with ten minutes remaining in the second half to help the Sun Devils pull away, 69-54. As ASU continued establishing pressure on Prairie View, earning themselves 22 points off the 20 turnovers they caused on the night.
BUCKET BEFORE THE HALF: Coming off a timeout with 28 seconds remaining, Remy Martin was looking for open floor to hit the three, but charged the paint before passing off to Romello White who drew the foul. White's free throws drew out ASU's lead to 43-36 over the Panthers.
UP NEXT: The Sun Devils will remain at home to take on Georgia Saturday, Dec. 14, at Desert Financial Arena, tipping off at 6 p.m. MT on the Pac-12 Network.
MOST SUN DEVIL FREE THROWS MADE
46 vs. Arizona, Jan. 29, 1955
39 vs. Boston College, Dec. 29, 1977
38 vs. BYU, Nov. 27, 1993
37 vs. Prairie View A&M, Dec. 11, 2019
QUOTING BOBBY HURLEY
ON PRAIRIE VIEW A&M COACHING STAFF
"I take my hat off...complete respect to PrairIe View and the coaching staff. How they get their team ready...I've been telling the guys as much as I talked about our offense that we better be ready to play a 40-minute game. They played other high majors, they lost by four to Cal, down two or four at halftime to Texas who was under ten late in that game so they don't give in or give up. They're really well-coached. That coach -- and again I don't want to forecast his future -- but I think he's got a heck of a career ahead of him coaching basketball."
ON OUTSIDE SHOOTING
"I asked the locker room how many guys had an open three and there was a lot of hands go up and not a lot of baskets went through the rim. We're going to get to the point where we are going to start evaluating whether we should be taking those shots or who should be taking them. As we keep working through the season --we are almost a third of the way through -- things should start turning. Not only did they take them but they were wide open shots, like wide-open shots that were not made so we've got to make them, got to maximize the minutes, and make the most when you're out there. Bottom line."
ON BRIGHT SPOTS
"I thought Romello, when he had chances, was excellent. You look at Remy's line he was terrific. He had maybe a shot he took late that wasn't a great shot and a couple of turnovers but he was really good. Mello was good. Verge had some good moments especially in the second half."
ON TEAM'S PERFORMANCE
"I feel better about this game than the last game. I feel better about our team and how we played. We had a stretch where they had technical fouls and missed two we had a layup we missed we had a wide-open three we missed. Then we got it to eighteen and then we were assessed the technical so these are self-inflicted things that we can't do. Once you have an opponent down you can't give them hope and let them back in the game and that's what we did in that second half."
ON HOW MAN FOULS
"They play hard, they're very physical and they're aggressive in how they defend so there were a lot of fouls, they fouled us a ton tonight. They might have fouled us more than we actually got fouled."
ON OUTSIDE SHOOTING
"We got guys who can dribble and penetrate and score. We got an inside guy that can score around the basket and we got to bring it all together. When teams go double or we hit the paint and they got to rotate we kick out and guys are stepping in and making shots...again were 5-of-17 that's not good enough based on the quality of the shots that I thought we took from three."
ON THE OFFENSIVE PERFORMANCE
"We had 88 I know we shot a lot of free throws so it's hard to bash the offense. I don't want to continue to kick it when it's down with the threes. That's the one area though but 88 points are a lot of points."
ON ROMELLO'S TOUCHES
"We're trying he's getting the ball a lot...again everything works hand in hand until we prove that you can't leave guys and go in and double and were gonna make you pay and get layups and a wide-open three and make it then I don't see any reason. He's getting the ball we are thinking about getting him the ball the coaches are talking to the team about getting him the ball."