LOS ANGELES — The ASU men’s basketball team got a lot of help from other NCAA Tournament bubble teams over the course of the past few days.
So much help that a win over Stanford on Thursday night in the Pac-10 Tournament Quarterfinals might have sealed an at-large bid to the Big Dance.
That didn’t happen.
ASU was outplayed from start to finish, only leading for a total of 18 seconds and eventually falling 70-61 to the Cardinal at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Now the Sun Devils (22-10) got exactly what they wanted to avoid — leaving their fate in the hands of the selection committee.
“I don’t think it was anything more than we didn’t play our best today,” ASU coach Herb Sendek said. “It was pretty obvious it was a big game, and we didn’t play well tonight.”
It was a drastic turnaround from nearly six weeks ago, when ASU held a 54-22 halftime lead at home against the Cardinal (14-17, 7-11 Pac-10).
This time, shots weren’t falling, turnovers were piling up and nobody was there to take over the game.
“We just didn’t take care of the ball,” ASU junior guard Ty Abbott said. “We didn’t execute the way we have been doing all year. When you don’t take care of the ball and you don’t execute, it kind of piles up.”
Stanford used a 13-5 run to open up a 22-12 lead with 8:15 remaining in the first half. ASU turned the ball over six times during that stretch. In comparison, the Sun Devils turned it over just five times total in their win in Palo Alto two weeks ago.
“That led to multiple transition opportunities and really put it behind the eight ball,” Sendek said of the turnovers.
ASU responded with a 12-2 run that tied the game at 24-24 with 1:44 to play on a layup by junior forward Rihards Kuksiks.
Stanford sophomore guard Jeremy Green then drilled a 3-pointer to give the Cardinal back the lead, but ASU senior guard Derek Glasser hit a shot from downtown right before the halftime buzzer to cut the deficit to just 29-28 at the break.
The Cardinal outscored ASU 12-5 off of turnovers and 14-6 in points in the paint and shot 50 percent in the first half.
After taking a brief lead on a layup by junior guard Jamelle McMillan, ASU allowed Stanford to go on a 19-5 run and take a 50-35 advantage with 11:46 to play. The Cardinal’s lead would later balloon to as much as 17, and ASU never got it closer than nine.
The notion is it is tough to beat a team three times in one season, and that held true on Thursday night.
“I don’t think [Stanford] made wholesale changes,” Sendek said. “They did a real good job defensively. Everything came hard for us.”
Kuksiks led the Sun Devils with 15 points, but he didn’t score at all in the second half. Glasser added 14 points and six rebounds, and senior center Eric Boateng finished with 13 points and a career-high 15 rebounds.
Green led the Cardinal with 18 points, and senior forward Landry Fields added 17, but he also had six turnovers and missed seven free throws.
Normally, Fields not being on top of his game spells disaster for Stanford, but senior guard Emmanuel Igbinosa stepped up with 12 points and senior guard Drew Shiller chipped in nine.
“That is the best part about [the win],” Fields said. “It is a credit to my teammates. They did their thing tonight, and I am proud of them.”
Now, the Sun Devils have to play the waiting game, and it will certainly be a long two and a half days before the tournament field is released.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” Glasser said. “We don’t really know how this affects us until Sunday.”
ASU must hope that other bubble teams continue to fall and that its regular-season second-place finish in the Pac-10 will be the ultimate decider.
“I don’t know how anybody knows — we don’t have any answers until Sunday,” Sendek said. “More wins means better chances, but we are going to hope for the best. Hopefully, our Pac-10 regular season will have significant weight.”
Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said he believes ASU belongs in the field of 65.
“I have heard a lot of speculation, [but] Arizona State has been terrific,” Dawkins said. “They have been the second-best team in our conference, and they have earned it. Hopefully, one loss like this doesn’t set them back.”
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
