Washington had won 10 conference games in a row to start Pac-12 play but were no match for Arizona State on Saturday night. Romello White scored 17 points and grabbed 8 rebounds to lead the Sun Devils to a 75-63 win over the Huskies.
ASU (16-7, 7-4) scored the game’s first five points and made it clear right away there would be no hangover from their 21 point loss to Washington State on Thursday.
After Washington (19-5, 10-1) took an early 11-7 lead, the Sun Devils answered with a 9-0 run and never trailed again taking a 34-26 into the break.
The second half would see the Huskies go down by 13 early and at one point 18. They cut ASU’s lead to 8 on several occasions but from there they never could string together enough stops in a row.
Keys to the Game
Washington Played Abysmal Interior Defense
For the first time since non-conference play, Washington’s 2-3 zone looked vulnerable. The Sun Devils had wing players slash to the high post and make quick decisions either passing to cutters or driving for layups and dunks. ASU shot okay from beyond the arc 35% but they were an unheard of 23 of 30 (77%) on two point field goals. They had 24 points in the paint with White finishing 8 of 9 from the field. Zylan Cheatham flirted with a triple double finishing with 9 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assist. Washington tried to make some adjustments to their zone in the second-half but it didn’t seem to help. Arizona State got the crowd into the game and played with way more energy.
Washington was too content to jack up 3’s
The Huskies took 57 shots and over half (32) were from beyond the arc. Washington finished a respectable 31.3% but most of those came once the game when ASU had a comfortable lead. The hot-shotting David Crsp had a rough night missing 6 of his first 7 3’s and going just 4 of 14 on the night. Washington’s guards Crisp, Nowell and Thybulle finished a combined 12 of 38 (31.6%) from the field, not good enough.
ASU dominated the boards
Before the game I expressed some concern about the Huskies rebounding issues and ASU’s dominance on the glass. ASU finished with 40 boards, the Huskies had just 23. Even though Arizona State turned the ball over 24 times, the Huskies couldn’t make them pay.
Outlook: This was always going to be a tough game, Arizona State has beaten two ranked teams at home already this year and was not intimidated by Washington. I think it’s unfortunate they played so poorly against Washington State on Thursday because they gave the Huskies their A game.
Washington has had the flu bug going around their team this week and unlike on Thursday they played like it. They didn’t share the ball well (12 assist, 17 turnovers) and always seemed a step slow on their rotations. Washington came in 2nd in the nation in blocks per game but had just 2 on Saturday, their fewest in Pac-12 play. When you don’t protect the rim to quote the South Park meme, “You’re going to have a bad time.”
The image that sticks out was Mike Hopkins calling a timeout, running onto the court and getting into his players faces after they got beat down the court for a layup just 30 seconds into the 2nd half. For a senior laden team to come out of half-time so unfocused is unacceptable.
That said I am not going to read more into this game than necessary. Almost everything that went wrong did and ASU is fighting for their tournament lives (this will give them 3 quadrant one wins). From here on out every opponent will be playing the Huskies for the 2nd time and will probably study what the Sun Devils did. On to the grades, spoiler alert: they’re all pretty bad.
Green – 6 – Green hit two 3’s finishing with 6 points and 5 steals. He fell asleep a couple times on defense as Arizona State started sneaking cutters along the baseline behind the wing defenders.
Thybulle – 5 – Thybulle did his usual work on defense with 3 steals and 2 blocks but remains inconsistent on offense. He went just 1 for 6 from the field and finished with 3 points.
Nowell – 4 – Nowell shot well from beyond the arc (3 of 6) but his drives are his bread and butter and it wasn’t there as he shot just 2 of 7 on 2-pointers. Nowell turned the ball over 4 times, he has 4 turnovers or more in 4 out of the last 5 games.
Crisp – 4- Crisp led the Huskies with 17 points but he was just 6 of 19 for the field. You love his confidence to take big shots but he reverted to a habit from past years where he stops looking for the pass at all, for the 2nd time in 3 games he had just 1 assist. Crisp was outplayed by his counterpart Remy Martin who provided 13 points and 5 assist for ASU.
Timmins – 5 – Timmins was big in the first half scoring 4 points but he got beat down the court several times in the 2nd half and didn’t play good interior defense. He also had a huge mental mistake in the 2nd half, nullifying a Jaylen Nowell basket when he grabbed the rim to goaltend a shot that was already going in. The Huskies missed Hameir Wright’s athleticism and rim protection. Timmins finished with 3 rebounds and 3 turnovers.
Dickerson – 7 – Dickerson is the only Husky who played particularly well. He got to the foul line 12 times and went 5 of 7 from the field finishing with 18 points and 8 rebounds. He did hurt the team by picking up his fourth foul early in the 2nd half but credit him for playing the last 10 minutes or so without fouling out. His passing out of double teams is still iffy, he finished with 3 turnovers.
Carter – 4 – Carter never really got into the game. He was scoreless (0-5 from the field) and turned the ball over twice. He needs to not let his offensive struggles carry over to the defensive end.
Bey – 5 – Bey played more minutes than normal finishing with an assist, steal and 3 fouls. He made an aggressive drive to the basket in the 2nd half earning a foul but he missed both free throws. That was in a sequence where the Huskies missed four free throws in a minute as Dickerson had just missed two.
