LOS ANGELES – Midway through the second half, the Sun Devil men's basketball team appeared it was on its way to winning the last regular season game in the history of the present-day Pac-12 Conference.
Up 43-34, there was little reason to think UCLA would be able to mount a comeback after it scored only six points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, the last nine-plus minutes were a 180-degree difference as the Bruins outscored ASU 25-4 to come away with a 59-47 win.
Adam Miller scored 11 of his team-high 13 points in the first half to help ASU take a 31-27 lead into the locker room. Also finishing in double figures in scoring for the Sun Devils were Jamiya Neal (12 points) and Frankie Collins (10 points). Neal (eight rebounds) and Miller (seven rebounds) combined for 15 of ASU's 34 rebounds.
The Sun Devils (14-17, 8-12 Pac-12) shot 50 percent in the first half, including 38.5 percent from beyond the arc. ASU was plus-four (7-3) in second chance points, an advantage that was canceled out by the Bruins (15-16, 10-10) outscoring the Sun Devils 12-8 in points off turnovers.
Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley
on what went wrong during UCLA's 25-4 run in the final nine-plus minutes
"We didn't hit foul shots … we were up nine points, and we missed seven out of eight foul shots. You have a chance to get to a double-figure lead, and we opened the door and allowed them to get back into the game."
on ASU's nine-point lead in the second half
"We were getting stops. We had one charted, we had seven straight possessions on defense. We stopped them from scoring, and then we were able to get out into the open floor and score some. Not against their set defense, but when they had their defense set, it was a struggle for us to get a quality shot. But, once we did get those stops, we ran, we got to the basket, we scored. We just couldn't make any foul shots."
on Arizona State's Jose Perez
"Jose is not going to be with the team moving forward. He's decided to take a position overseas, so he'll be playing overseas the remainder of the season."
on his message to the team following Jose Perez's departure
"We have to reinvent ourselves. It's hard to do that in one day. So we've got a couple of days before the Pac-12 Tournament to try and figure out a way to generate more offense. But we certainly were on a better pace to score more than 47 points and to have more than 16 in the second half. We were so inept at shooting free throws and that snowballed into other things, and things got unraveled quickly."
on the upcoming Pac-12 Tournament
"It's all or nothing at this point. You're just playing through your season for your basketball life. We have to do better. We can't have stretches like we did in the first half where we had a good lead early, and then we were stuck on 43 forever. You can't be stuck on 43 forever. You can't afford to miss foul shots. You can't start doing something that you do well and turn that into a disadvantage. We don't usually turn the ball over. We had 15 turnovers – we had 10 at halftime. That may be part of the reason why we didn't have a better lead going into the half, so we have to clean up a lot of things to even have a shot."
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From a statistical standpoint, the Bruins' comeback was made possible by their success from 3-point range (7-11/63.6 percent) and at the free throw line (7-10/70 percent), where they combined to score 28 of their 32 second half points. During UCLA's scoring spurt, the basket was unkind to the Sun Devils as they missed nine of their last 10 shots. ASU did not help its cause with a 5-of-14 performance from the line over the final 20 minutes.
Up next for the Sun Devils is the final Pac-12 Tournament which gets underway Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. ASU (No. 11 seed) will play in the last of four first round games on Wednesday (8:30 p.m.) when it takes on Utah (No. 6 seed). The game can be seen on Pac-12 Network.
Up 43-34, there was little reason to think UCLA would be able to mount a comeback after it scored only six points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, the last nine-plus minutes were a 180-degree difference as the Bruins outscored ASU 25-4 to come away with a 59-47 win.
Adam Miller scored 11 of his team-high 13 points in the first half to help ASU take a 31-27 lead into the locker room. Also finishing in double figures in scoring for the Sun Devils were Jamiya Neal (12 points) and Frankie Collins (10 points). Neal (eight rebounds) and Miller (seven rebounds) combined for 15 of ASU's 34 rebounds.
The Sun Devils (14-17, 8-12 Pac-12) shot 50 percent in the first half, including 38.5 percent from beyond the arc. ASU was plus-four (7-3) in second chance points, an advantage that was canceled out by the Bruins (15-16, 10-10) outscoring the Sun Devils 12-8 in points off turnovers.
Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley
on what went wrong during UCLA's 25-4 run in the final nine-plus minutes
"We didn't hit foul shots … we were up nine points, and we missed seven out of eight foul shots. You have a chance to get to a double-figure lead, and we opened the door and allowed them to get back into the game."
on ASU's nine-point lead in the second half
"We were getting stops. We had one charted, we had seven straight possessions on defense. We stopped them from scoring, and then we were able to get out into the open floor and score some. Not against their set defense, but when they had their defense set, it was a struggle for us to get a quality shot. But, once we did get those stops, we ran, we got to the basket, we scored. We just couldn't make any foul shots."
on Arizona State's Jose Perez
"Jose is not going to be with the team moving forward. He's decided to take a position overseas, so he'll be playing overseas the remainder of the season."
on his message to the team following Jose Perez's departure
"We have to reinvent ourselves. It's hard to do that in one day. So we've got a couple of days before the Pac-12 Tournament to try and figure out a way to generate more offense. But we certainly were on a better pace to score more than 47 points and to have more than 16 in the second half. We were so inept at shooting free throws and that snowballed into other things, and things got unraveled quickly."
on the upcoming Pac-12 Tournament
"It's all or nothing at this point. You're just playing through your season for your basketball life. We have to do better. We can't have stretches like we did in the first half where we had a good lead early, and then we were stuck on 43 forever. You can't be stuck on 43 forever. You can't afford to miss foul shots. You can't start doing something that you do well and turn that into a disadvantage. We don't usually turn the ball over. We had 15 turnovers – we had 10 at halftime. That may be part of the reason why we didn't have a better lead going into the half, so we have to clean up a lot of things to even have a shot."
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From a statistical standpoint, the Bruins' comeback was made possible by their success from 3-point range (7-11/63.6 percent) and at the free throw line (7-10/70 percent), where they combined to score 28 of their 32 second half points. During UCLA's scoring spurt, the basket was unkind to the Sun Devils as they missed nine of their last 10 shots. ASU did not help its cause with a 5-of-14 performance from the line over the final 20 minutes.
Up next for the Sun Devils is the final Pac-12 Tournament which gets underway Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. ASU (No. 11 seed) will play in the last of four first round games on Wednesday (8:30 p.m.) when it takes on Utah (No. 6 seed). The game can be seen on Pac-12 Network.