ASU men’s basketball had its trip to the Bahamas spoiled Monday night, as the Sun Devils got absolutely blasted by the nation’s top-ranked team, the Kentucky Wildcats, by a final of 115-69 at Atlantis Resort’s Imperial Arena.
This marked the second straight game ASU gave up over 100 points, having beaten the Citadel 127-110 five days earlier.
It was all Kentucky from the start, leading 17-8 within five minutes as they never looked back. The Wildcats were already well on their way to what would be a 58-30 halftime lead.
The second half wasn't any prettier, as UK scored the first twelve points to open up a 40-point lead.
It was soon after that ASU found itself on SportsCenter's Top 10 watch-list, but not exactly for the best reason, thanks to a reverse dunk in transition by Wenyen Gabriel, who had ten points in the win.
An #SCtop10 pass followed by an #SCtop10 reverse dunk. https://t.co/Vo7DV76F8f
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 29, 2016
As for the rest of UK's extremely talented roster, the 'Cats were led by freshman Malik Monk, who dropped 23 points. Fellow frosh De'Aaron Fox had a triple-double with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Isaiah Briscoe was also red-hot, putting up 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting.
ASU's numbers were a bit uglier. With only six scorers, the leaders were Sam Cunliffe and Obinna Oleka with 14 points each. Oleka had a double-double with 11 boards of his own.
It was in Oleka's territory, however – down low – where Kentucky found its biggest advantage. The Wildcats outscored the Sun Devils, 58-26 in the paint and won the rebound margin convincingly, 59-33.
The Sun Devils will look to bounce back with a trio of difficult games coming up, the first of which will be a showdown with UNLV Saturday. ASU will then head to the Big Apple to take on currently No. 15 Purdue before heading to California to visit a solid mid-major opponent in San Diego State.
Reach the reporter at jeff.griffith21@asu.edu or follow @Jeff_Griffith21 on Twitter.
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