Start spreading the news, the Sun Devils are heading to New York.
Junior guard Ty Abbott connected on a floater with 21 seconds left put ASU in front 50-49 and after a clutch defensive stop, senior guard Derek Glasser hit two free throws to ice the 52-49 hard-fought victory over TCU to send the Sun Devils to the First Four of the Preseason NIT at Madison Square Garden.
It certainly wasn’t a pretty win and the Sun Devils struggled most of the night, but ASU coach Herb Sendek was pleased with the way his team battled.
State Press Television, Interview with Ty Abbott
“Tremendous gut-check win for our team tonight. Nothing fancy about it, just a lot of blood and guts,” Sendek said. “I’m so proud of the way they battled. They battled so hard and to me that is what it is all about. I know we have to get better. It wasn’t perfect or elegant; it was just a lot of heart.”
ASU (3-0) was saved by the career night of senior center Eric Boateng, who had his first double-double, finishing with a career-high 21 points and 12 rebounds.
“What can you say about Eric? He literally put us on his back and carried us across the finish line,” Sendek said. “He got good post position and took his time and then he finished.”
A back and forth affair all night, the game seemed to tilt the way of TCU (2-1) when it took a two-point lead and turned it into an eight-point lead on one possession.
TCU senior forward Edvinas Ruzgas hit a three from the right corner and was fouled on the play by junior guard Jamelle McMillian.
Ruzgas missed the free throw but sophomore forward Kevin Butler grabbed the offensive rebound and dished it to sophomore guard Ronnie Moss who hit a three that made it 48-40 Horned Frogs with 3:54 to play.
Boateng said that there was no panic after falling behind by eight.
“We tried to stick together and stay together and do what we do,” Boateng said. “We are learning things about each other and today was a situation where we had to come together and overcome some things.”
Sendek quickly called a timeout, and out of the break junior forward Rihards Kuksiks nailed a three from near the top of the key to cut the lead to 48-43 with 3:35 to play.
After the teams traded turnovers, freshman guard Trent Lockett stole the ball from TCU senior guard Keion Mitchem and was fouled on his way to the basket. Lockett hit just one of two free throws to make it 48-44 with 2:41 left.
Then it was Boateng’s time to shine. The senior got the offensive rebound on Lockett’s missed free throw and was fouled by Butler.
Boateng nailed both free throws to cut it to 48-46 and then he stole the ball from Moss and on the ensuing possession laid the ball in to the basket to tie things at 48-48 with 1:45 to play.
On the other end, Lockett fouled Moss with 1:13 to play to send the sophomore to the free throw line for the one and one. Moss made the first to put the Horned Frogs up one, but he missed the second attempt. However, the Sun Devils couldn’t control the rebound and the ball went out of bounds to TCU.
That is when the second hero stepped up for ASU. With Ruzgas driving to try and put the Horned Frogs up by three, Kuksiks held his ground and took a charge to give the Sun Devils the ball back with 39 seconds to play, down 49-48.
Sendek called timeout to set up a play. The first option was to look inside to Boateng, but that wasn’t there so the ball went into the hands of Lockett who then gave the ball to Abbott.
With the play broken down, Abbott saw space and drove into the lane and his floater was good to put ASU in front 50-49 with 21 seconds to play.
“We were just playing,” Sendek said eluding to the play call. “We run a motion offense and we had two things we were looking to get to before that happened but it broke down. Ty went off the dribble and he made a great play.”
Abbott, who has practiced just two times this season and isn’t fully recovered from knee surgery, not only hit the game-winning shot on Tuesday night, but sparked the Sun Devils to victory on Monday as well.
“You have to give credit to Ty, that was a big shot,” Boateng said.
After a TCU timeout with 17 seconds left, ASU’s defense didn’t give a single good look to TCU and Moss fired a wild three that clanked off the iron and went out of bounds with three seconds to play. ASU inbounded to Glasser and the senior was fouled with 1.7 seconds to play. Glasser connected on both free throws, his first points of the night, to ice the victory.
After the six point possession, ASU ended the game on a 12-1 run.
“We got stops. We were down eight and went on a 12-1 run,” Sendek said. “That was really just a great gut check for our team.”
The win moves ASU onto the semifinals of the Preseason NIT against No. 9 Duke on Nov. 25. But before ASU can head to the lights of Broadway, the Sun Devils must face San Francisco at Wells Fargo Arena on Friday.
