The Randy Bennett era begins with a victory

Filin' it up
The story of the evening was the play of Filip Malesevic, who emerged as one of the opening night standouts. He was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field and 4-for-4 from the line, finishing with 12 points. He added six rebounds, an assist, and a steal to finish a team-best +19 in 25 minutes coming off the bench.

Getting to the line
Paulius Murauskas showed off his knack for drawing contact, as he was able to earn several trips to the free throw line. He took advantage of the opportunities, finishing 11-of-12 on the night. The 12 free throw attempts by Murauskas were the same as ETSU had as a team (8-of-12). As a team, Arizona State went 21-of-26 (80.2%) from the stripe, a big reason why they were able to secure the victory.

More points for Paulius
Murauskas entered the game with over 1,000 career points, the most of any Sun Devil. He added to that total tonight with his 22nd career 20-point performance. The Saint Mary's transfer picked up right where he left off, as he scored in double figures in 30 of 33 games a season ago. It only took him one half to accomplish the feat in his Sun Devil debut. He was one of only seven Big 12 players to have 20+ points on opening night.

What does the Fox say?
Joel Foxwell did what he does best, orchestrating the offense from the point guard position. He finished with 15 points and five assists, while adding three rebounds and a steal. It was the 13th time in his career he has had a 15-point/5-assist performance and 27th career double-digit point effort. Foxwell was a +11 and committed only one turnover despite a high workload.

Many minutes
Both Paulius Murauskas and Joel Foxwell nearly played the entire game. The duo was only subbed out with five seconds left in the contest. They combined for 36 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists in leading Arizona State to victory. No other Big 12 player had more minutes on opening night than Foxwell or Murauskas.

Forcing fouls
Arizona State did an excellent job of getting the Buccaneers into foul trouble, which resulted in many free throw attempts. ASU had a +14 advantage in that area thanks to the 26 total fouls committed by ETSU (compared to 12 for ASU). Three different Buccaneers fouled out of the game, including starting forward Kendall Campbell with 4:53 still left in the game.

Empty the notebook

• After winning 589 games at Saint Mary's, Randy Bennett secured his first win at Arizona State.
• Dillan Shaw stepped up offensively for the Sun Devils, putting together the 11th double-digit performance of his career (13 points, six rebounds).
• For the eight time in his career, Paulius Murauskas had 10 or more free throw attempts (11-of-12). He led the WCC in free throw attemps a season ago.
• Following a 3-of-15 (20%) start from deep, Arizona State finishing by making 5-of-11 (45.4%).
• ETSU did not block a single Sun Devil shot. ASU is the only Big 12 team to not have a shot blocked on opening night.
• Arizona State converted 13 ETSU turnovers into 26 points. By contrast, ETSU managed to score only 13 points off the 10 ASU turnovers.
• Freshman JRob Croy came through with huge minutes in the absence of Emmanuel Innocenti in the second half. Croy finished with nine points and made 3-of-5 three-point shots.
• Filip Malesevic and JRob Croy combined for 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting, to go along with seven rebounds and two assists. They were also a +27, providing a huge spark off the bench. 

Quotables
Head Coach Randy Bennett
On his overall thoughts of everything tonight
“I’ll be honest with you. It's a little different. Going into this one, I can't totally explain why, but it was just a little anxiety. Just because it's new and little things like locker room situations. I don't know how long it's going to take to walk in. You don't know how you guys are going to play because there's a lot of nerves that make you a little nervous going into it, more so than usual. It was a great experience, great atmosphere. I love the court here. We can get it popping for sure.”

On the depth of this team
“ I think we have good depth, and we just have to get some more reps, more games, so that I know what they can do. They know that I believe in them. I wish we would have separated in this game so that we could have played some more guys. Bryce is going to get in there. Jrob (Cory) played well, he gave us good minutes and is getting better. He was really good. Filip (Malesevic) played well. He's been coming on. We get Johnathan Griman back, and he had to get cleared with the NCAA stuff. During that time, his back was sore, spasming up,so he's been off for like two and a half, three weeks, and he didn't know if he's going to get to play. He got cleared on that, and yesterday was his first day of practice in about three weeks, so he's going to come on.”

On how the players responded to East Tennessee States runs
“Composure. It was kind of ratty there for a while. We were choppy on defense. Every once in a while, we turned it over or made a bad decision offensively. They got aggressive on those on ball screens, so they were going to blitz us. Dylan's in an on ball. Dylan's in an on-ball. He's not used to being blitzed in an on-ball. They kept their composure. Our leaders, Paulius, did a good job there. I thought Foxwell did a good job there, and Dilian did a good job there. We didn't panic, and so going in the game, I told them two things that we had to be good at were to play hard for 40 minutes and keep your composure for 40 minutes. If you're going in this game “hey this first game this is great this is the new Sun Devils.” If you're getting all excited about that, you're in trouble. You better be excited. You better have your head ready to fight, because that's what these guys are coming in. I don't want to say it's a nothing loss for them (ETSU). It's not that, but there is not nearly as much pressure on them coming in here than us playing our first game here against them.These guys are quick and aggressive and have had success. They're good, so I'm glad we handled the composure piece and kept the lead from ever getting to three.”

Sophomore guard Joel Foxwell
On if their game represented Randy Bennet basketball:
“I think we did an okay job of representing what Randy's all about. I think there's a whole lot more, and I would say it's good that we got the win, but we have so much more work to do. We weren't really satisfied, but it's just about thugging it out and winning those games, those hard games. I think we did a good job in the last like six minutes, just controlling the game, putting it on our terms, and kind of just being able to do what we wanted to do, rather than kind of playing catch up.”

On how the team handled the attack on the offense from ETSU:
“I think in the first half we weren't great just with our scout rules. Yeah, it wasn't who we are. It wasn't who we've been for the last four months. In the second half, we started off slow again. But as the game went on, we started to stick to our rules a little bit more. I think it was more just offensively in the second half. We just couldn't really get a whole lot of flow, and they were pretty good at clogging the paint and pushing us really far out of our offense and that kind of slowed us down. The first half was poor, and then in the second half we were better.”

Senior forward Paulius Murauskas
On how he developed throughout the game and impacted the offense:
“I try to figure out how we’re guarding in the beginning. I try to get my teammates more involved, as some hockey assists. I was trying to figure out what kind of double we're gonna do.”

On his free throw attempts
“I just try to be aggressive, crash the boards, be physical, especially when the three ball is not falling."

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