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ASU men's basketball whoops Oregon State

The Sun Devils led by as many as 27 in a dominating home victory

Arizona State Sun Devils guard Maurice O'Field looks to score during a game against the Oregon State Beavers at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona, on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2015. The Sun Devils took the win over the Beavers, 86-68.
Arizona State Sun Devils guard Maurice O'Field looks to score during a game against the Oregon State Beavers at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona, on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2015. The Sun Devils took the win over the Beavers, 86-68.

After starting slowly in each of its first seven conference games, the ASU men's basketball needed a boost. So this week at practice, coach Bobby Hurley switched it up, making his squad hit the ground running, like he want them to do in-game.

"I just thought in practice to say 'Hey, let's start the first 20 minutes in practice at the highest level,'" Hurley said.

The shift in gear seemed to work Thursday, as the Sun Devils (12-9, 2-6 Pac-12) took down Oregon State University 86-68, snapping their second three-game losing streak of the year.

Hurley said he re-examined his preparation after ASU's 1-6 start in Pac-12 play and that led to his re-tooling heading into this weekend.

"When you struggle early in games, you second-guess yourself," Hurley said. "You wonder if you're doing all the right things. Are you talking about the right things with the players? You examine your warmups, you examine your pregame speech."

The Sun Devils came out of the gates firing, jumping out to a quick double-digit lead thanks to a five-minute, 12-0 run.

OSU didn't help its cause in the first half, shooting a putrid 19.2 percent from the floor and making more 3s than 2s. On the other side, ASU was on fire and extended its lead to 19 by half.

The cause of the Beavers struggles can be traced back to their leading scorer, senior guard Gary Payton II. He was held scoreless in the first half and scored his only two points nearly halfway through the second half.

Normally, senior guard Gerry Blakes is assigned the opponent's best perimeter player; tonight, sophomore guard Tra Holder defended Payton all night, keeping him in check.

"I'm excited for Tra," Hurley said. "That's a big step for him... He accepted the challenge and that's where his focus was. He knew that he had a responsibility to guard arguably the best player in the league right now and a veteran guy and he did a great job."

With less energy having to be spent on the defensive end of the floor, Blakes was free to score the ball, something he's struggled with for most of the season. Spurred on by two quick buckets in the opening minutes, Blakes finished with 16 points, his most since the second game of the season.

The Sun Devils didn't let up in the second half. Blakes and senior forward Willie Atwood said Hurley told them they hadn't done anything yet.

The Sun Devils responded once again to Hurley's prompting, scoring 50 points and shooting an astronomical 64.5 percent from the floor to finish the day above 59 percent. That clip is the highest of the season and the program's best shooting night in a conference game since February 2, 2013 against Washington.

Next up for the Sun Devils is the Oregon Ducks, a team that's riding high off a win in Tucson Thursday. ASU will try to do something it hasn't done yet: win back-to-back conference games.

Trending in ASU's favor is the fact that both of its conference wins have come in the friendly confines of Wells Fargo Arena, prompting Atwood to voice how much his squad will need the support as the year goes on.

"Home court advantage is key in this conference," Atwood said. "I swear it is. We need that."



Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.

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