Jan. 24, 1998
Veal Reaches Milestone as ASU Tops Oregon
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - Jeremy Veal had a game-high 20 points and became the eighth player in Pac-10 history with 1,700 points in the Sun Devils' 67-51 victory over Oregon on Saturday.
Veal now has 1717 career points and 379 assists, joining Ron Lee, Sean Elliott, Gary Payton, Eldridge Recasner, Khalid Reeves, Damon Stoudamire and Brevin Knight in the exclusive club.
Veal's 18-foot jump shot broke a tie at 39 with 12:55 remaining to key a 22-2 run as Arizona State (13-7, 3-4) broke a two-game losing streak.
Veal had seven points in that run, including the last of his two three-pointers.
Oregon (7-10, 2-6) had a season-high 23 turnovers and a season-low in points while losing for the sixth time in seven games.
The Ducks had only one basket, Henry Madden's 13-foot jumper, in a 10-minute, 26-second span after Terik Brown tied the game at 39.
Mike Batiste had 16 points and 12 rebounds and Bobby Lazor 11 points and 10 rebounds for Arizona State.
Flo Hartenstein led Oregon with a career-high 12 points. A.D. Smith had 10 points.
Arizona State led at halftime, 31-25, despite a 6:44-second scoring drought midway through a sloppy first half that included 26 turnovers, 15 by Oregon.
All seven Arizona State scholarship players scored in its 22-2 run.
"We play best when we play together, " Veal said.
And Arizona State coach Don Newman agreed.
"Our guys found something out today -- we went up and went up, and we kept separating ourselves. That's how you have to play basketball," said Newman.
Veal said he was unaware that he had joined select company.
"That's a great compliment. I know my dad is going to be very happy about that. My hard work is paying off right now," Veal said. "When I look back 20 years from now, I'll be happy. Right now, I'm just trying to get wins."
Oregon shot 36.7 percent from the field and had more turnovers (23) than baskets (22).
"It was just a bad basketball game all around. We didn't play well at all. We're a better basketball team than this," Oregon first-year coach Ernie Kent said.