The road woes continued for the ASU men’s basketball team Saturday.
The Sun Devils (7-16, 3-8 Pac-12) fell to California 68–47 at Haas Pavilion.
In it’s the fifth-straight road game, ASU has lost by double digits. All of those games were played without junior guard Trent Lockett. He sat out for his sixth game with a sprained right ankle.
In addition to Lockett, ASU was already banged up before the game. Junior wing Carrick Felix rolled his ankle in Thursday’s 68–44 loss against Stanford and freshman Jonathan Gilling played through an injured thumb.
Whether it was due to the injuries or not, the offense mightily struggled throughout the game. With his team down 4–0, coach Herb Sendek called a timeout 1:30 into the game to try and spark the team.
Sendek also picked up a technical foul with 17:27 left in the first half, down 8–0.
The Sun Devils didn’t make a field goal until nearly three minutes later on sophomore forward Kyle Cain’s layup. He led ASU with 18 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
It didn’t get better from that moment on.
ASU shot 38.3 percent from the floor. Cain was the only player in double figures. Junior forward Ruslan Pateev added eight points off the bench, but he also had four turnovers. Sophomore forward Jordan Bachynski cooled off from his impressive string of performances. He finished with five points and five rebounds.
The Golden Bears (18-6, 8-3 Pac-12) weren’t any better from the floor, shooting 43.8 percent, but they took advantage of the Sun Devils’ 20 turnovers.
Sophomore guard Allen Crabbe had a game-high 19 points. He left the game midway through the second half with a right ankle injury and did not return. Senior guard Jorge Gutierrez contributed 10 points and five rebounds in 28 minutes.
The Sun Devils are now 1-6 away from Wells Fargo Arena. During their two-game trip to northern California, the Sun Devils were outscored by a combined 45 points.
The team head back to Tempe for a two-game stand against Utah and Colorado. ASU will seek revenge on both teams this week as the Utes and the Buffaloes blew out the Sun Devils nearly three weeks ago.
Reach the reporter at mtesfats@asu.edu
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
