The Arizona State men's hoops team (12-8; 3-6) came out strong and led for the first 27 minutes, then held off desperate Colorado in a back-and-forth Big 12 road tilt Tuesday night, 70-68.
Down to basically a six-man rotation after the first five minutes, ASU was led by Adam Miller who had 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting in 39 minutes, including four three-pointers.
Alston Mason – second in the Big 12 entering the game at more than 35 minutes per game – had 17 points in 39 minutes, while Shawn Phillips had 13 points and nine rebounds.
Without freshmen Jayden Quaintance who didn't make the trip due to a foot injury, ASU jumped out to leads of 11-2 (14:46) and 19-9 (8:40) before settling for a 33-26 halftime lead. The second half saw five lead changes, four ties and CU led for 2:37, but after the Buffaloes took a 53-50 lead at 8:34, the Sun Devils scored seven straight points and never gave up the lead again.
Sun Devil leading scorer BJ Freeman – averaging 13.0 points and more than 28 minutes – went out with an injury and did not return after playing just four minutes.
Great Defense on Great Player
Colorado star guard Julian Hammond III leads his team averaging 13.9 points on .454 shooting. In two games against Arizona State, he averaged 6.5 points and shot 5-of-23 (.217), including 5-of-16 Tuesday.
In Good Company
ASU is 44-23 (.656) in two-possession games in the past six seasons (since 2019-20). The 44 wins are the most among power five teams.
Most Two Possession Wins in P5 Past Two Seasons
ASU 44-23 (.656)
Wisconsin: 43-30 (.589)
Kansas: 42-15 (.737)
Virginia: 40-17 (.701)
Xavier: 40-35 (.533)
Texas A&M: 40-23 (.634)
Many Minutes for Mason
Senior guard Alston Mason has led the team in minutes in 17 of the 20 games, including playing 37+ minutes in eight straight games. He once again led in minutes for ASU with 39 at Colorado and 38 against Iowa State. He is now up to 35.5 minutes per game, which is neck-and-neck with West Virginia's Javon Small (36.0) for the most in the Big 12 and also Top-50 nationally. Mason is also shooting a team-high 80 percent from the free-throw line.
Arizona State Head Coach Bobby Hurley
Opening Statement
"Great road when they were desperate to win obviously. I got a ton of respect for Coach Boyle and what he's done here, what his program is all about, and how hard it is to win in this building. So it was a gut check game for us, just where we are in the standings, and want to try and climb ourselves out of the hole we kind of dug for ourselves. We dealt with a lot of stuff with injuries, and we're still dealing with it. We really stepped up, though. Adam Miller played great both ends of the floor. Sean Phillips had probably his best game this season for us, just with his presence in the paint, the rebounding, especially without Jayden Quaintance tonight."
On Sean Phillips performance with Jayden Quaintance being out
"I've said this before, he gets lost in the shuffle with some of the freshmen and the upside they have for the future, but Sean's right at the top of the food chain in our program of just raw talent and upside and potential, if he puts it all together. Hopefully, the switch that gets turned on sometimes is starting to get turned on, because he could make a difference for us. His length around the basket, challenging shots, the block he made when all hell was breaking loose at the end was huge for them not to get that shot. That same play to Coach Boyle ran, I think he beat my brother in Maui with (Andrej) Jakimovski driving to his right hand and scoring the ball, so Sean was able to rotate over and block that shot."
On Trevor Baskin's performance
"If he played against me, man, every night, forget about it, right? He would be in the College Basketball Hall of Fame, maybe. Credit to Colorado, they attacked certain matchups they liked when he maybe had a matchup they thought they could take advantage of and he was able to back his way in there and use his pivoting. Played really hard, he was a hard playing kid. I like his game a lot."
On BJ Freeman's injury
"I didn't get far enough into the details of the specific of it. I was just fighting for my life out there. We'll get all the medical on him, but I saw the play in the first half, and clearly he made contact with the Colorado player. Knee to thigh, it happens all the time. He's got a deep thigh bruise, and we'll see. He was walking okay after the game in the locker room. So we'll see what he's like tomorrow."
On winning on the road with injuries
"I think coming into this game, we had the No. e strength of schedule in KenPom. So we've been in a lot of tough places. We played a lot of hard games on the road already in the Big 12 and non-conference neutral sites. These guys are learning to fight together. We've got to clean some things up still, you look down at the stat sheet, we have 17 turnovers again, and we can't afford to do that and think we can win. We got away with it tonight. We've got to close games better."
On defending Julian Hammond
"We know that he's very capable, and they ran a nice high stagger for him. I thought we did a good job. I thought Adam (Miller) did a really good job of chasing him. They run a lot of good stuff for him. He's a guy who could get downhill, and if he gets going, he could hit from distance. So they got one or better guards in the conference.
ASU Guard Adam Miller
On Sean Phillips performance
"He did what he's capable of. He did a good job coming into the game prepared, I believe he had a good shoot around this morning. Kudos to him. He was prepared. He came out and did his job. We live in a life of college sports where everybody gets paid now, and everybody thinks it's all sunshine and rainbows, but he's a warrior. He goes through stuff on and off the court, just like everybody else does. So for having back today, not having probably the best year that he wants, to still be able to play. It shows resiliency, so we need that right now."
On playing through teammates injuries
"Guys just stepped up. We did it even against West Virginia, BJ was kind of hurt in the first half, we had no Joson (Sanon), so we've kind of been going through it. JQ (Jayden Quaintance) was out this game, so this is the first time for us having that. But I think guys just got to be ready. An opportunity comes up you're not going to make every shot, but you just gotta have high intensity and be ready and you're gonna give yourself the best chance. I feel like we did a good job as a team. I felt like we should have won by a little more. We let some plays slip off to turnovers. We only had three steals, we should have had way more than that. But a win is a win."
Next Up
ASU next plays Arizona on Saturday, Feb. 1, at 11 a.m. at Desert Financial Arena on CBS.
Down to basically a six-man rotation after the first five minutes, ASU was led by Adam Miller who had 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting in 39 minutes, including four three-pointers.
Alston Mason – second in the Big 12 entering the game at more than 35 minutes per game – had 17 points in 39 minutes, while Shawn Phillips had 13 points and nine rebounds.
Without freshmen Jayden Quaintance who didn't make the trip due to a foot injury, ASU jumped out to leads of 11-2 (14:46) and 19-9 (8:40) before settling for a 33-26 halftime lead. The second half saw five lead changes, four ties and CU led for 2:37, but after the Buffaloes took a 53-50 lead at 8:34, the Sun Devils scored seven straight points and never gave up the lead again.
Sun Devil leading scorer BJ Freeman – averaging 13.0 points and more than 28 minutes – went out with an injury and did not return after playing just four minutes.
Great Defense on Great Player
Colorado star guard Julian Hammond III leads his team averaging 13.9 points on .454 shooting. In two games against Arizona State, he averaged 6.5 points and shot 5-of-23 (.217), including 5-of-16 Tuesday.
In Good Company
ASU is 44-23 (.656) in two-possession games in the past six seasons (since 2019-20). The 44 wins are the most among power five teams.
Most Two Possession Wins in P5 Past Two Seasons
ASU 44-23 (.656)
Wisconsin: 43-30 (.589)
Kansas: 42-15 (.737)
Virginia: 40-17 (.701)
Xavier: 40-35 (.533)
Texas A&M: 40-23 (.634)
Many Minutes for Mason
Senior guard Alston Mason has led the team in minutes in 17 of the 20 games, including playing 37+ minutes in eight straight games. He once again led in minutes for ASU with 39 at Colorado and 38 against Iowa State. He is now up to 35.5 minutes per game, which is neck-and-neck with West Virginia's Javon Small (36.0) for the most in the Big 12 and also Top-50 nationally. Mason is also shooting a team-high 80 percent from the free-throw line.
Arizona State Head Coach Bobby Hurley
Opening Statement
"Great road when they were desperate to win obviously. I got a ton of respect for Coach Boyle and what he's done here, what his program is all about, and how hard it is to win in this building. So it was a gut check game for us, just where we are in the standings, and want to try and climb ourselves out of the hole we kind of dug for ourselves. We dealt with a lot of stuff with injuries, and we're still dealing with it. We really stepped up, though. Adam Miller played great both ends of the floor. Sean Phillips had probably his best game this season for us, just with his presence in the paint, the rebounding, especially without Jayden Quaintance tonight."
On Sean Phillips performance with Jayden Quaintance being out
"I've said this before, he gets lost in the shuffle with some of the freshmen and the upside they have for the future, but Sean's right at the top of the food chain in our program of just raw talent and upside and potential, if he puts it all together. Hopefully, the switch that gets turned on sometimes is starting to get turned on, because he could make a difference for us. His length around the basket, challenging shots, the block he made when all hell was breaking loose at the end was huge for them not to get that shot. That same play to Coach Boyle ran, I think he beat my brother in Maui with (Andrej) Jakimovski driving to his right hand and scoring the ball, so Sean was able to rotate over and block that shot."
On Trevor Baskin's performance
"If he played against me, man, every night, forget about it, right? He would be in the College Basketball Hall of Fame, maybe. Credit to Colorado, they attacked certain matchups they liked when he maybe had a matchup they thought they could take advantage of and he was able to back his way in there and use his pivoting. Played really hard, he was a hard playing kid. I like his game a lot."
On BJ Freeman's injury
"I didn't get far enough into the details of the specific of it. I was just fighting for my life out there. We'll get all the medical on him, but I saw the play in the first half, and clearly he made contact with the Colorado player. Knee to thigh, it happens all the time. He's got a deep thigh bruise, and we'll see. He was walking okay after the game in the locker room. So we'll see what he's like tomorrow."
On winning on the road with injuries
"I think coming into this game, we had the No. e strength of schedule in KenPom. So we've been in a lot of tough places. We played a lot of hard games on the road already in the Big 12 and non-conference neutral sites. These guys are learning to fight together. We've got to clean some things up still, you look down at the stat sheet, we have 17 turnovers again, and we can't afford to do that and think we can win. We got away with it tonight. We've got to close games better."
On defending Julian Hammond
"We know that he's very capable, and they ran a nice high stagger for him. I thought we did a good job. I thought Adam (Miller) did a really good job of chasing him. They run a lot of good stuff for him. He's a guy who could get downhill, and if he gets going, he could hit from distance. So they got one or better guards in the conference.
ASU Guard Adam Miller
On Sean Phillips performance
"He did what he's capable of. He did a good job coming into the game prepared, I believe he had a good shoot around this morning. Kudos to him. He was prepared. He came out and did his job. We live in a life of college sports where everybody gets paid now, and everybody thinks it's all sunshine and rainbows, but he's a warrior. He goes through stuff on and off the court, just like everybody else does. So for having back today, not having probably the best year that he wants, to still be able to play. It shows resiliency, so we need that right now."
On playing through teammates injuries
"Guys just stepped up. We did it even against West Virginia, BJ was kind of hurt in the first half, we had no Joson (Sanon), so we've kind of been going through it. JQ (Jayden Quaintance) was out this game, so this is the first time for us having that. But I think guys just got to be ready. An opportunity comes up you're not going to make every shot, but you just gotta have high intensity and be ready and you're gonna give yourself the best chance. I feel like we did a good job as a team. I felt like we should have won by a little more. We let some plays slip off to turnovers. We only had three steals, we should have had way more than that. But a win is a win."
Next Up
ASU next plays Arizona on Saturday, Feb. 1, at 11 a.m. at Desert Financial Arena on CBS.