Pac-10 play has not been kind to the ASU men’s basketball team.
On Thursday night, Washington State’s DeAngelo Casto made sure it was going to stay that way.
The junior forward recorded a career-high 25 points to aid the Cougars in a 78-61 victory over the Sun Devils at Friel Court in Pullman, WA.
“We have to continue to give maximum effort on every play,” ASU assistant coach Lamont Smith said in his postgame radio interview. “When you take plays off in this league, bad things will happen to you. We took plays off tonight, and this was the end result.”
Smith believed that ASU (9-9, 1-5 Pac-10) didn’t have the mindset to get a win on the road.
“To get a win on the road, you have to have a certain mentality,” Smith said. “We have to work on developing that.”
The turning point came midway through the first half. With ASU hanging around, thanks to some timely three- pointers, WSU head coach Ken Bone elected to change things up.
The Sun Devils’ open looks came against the Cougars’ zone, so Bone switched to a man-to-man defense.
The open looks went away, and with them so did ASU’s offense. Inside of the three-point line, the Sun Devils’ offense was stagnant.
“They stayed in the zone longer than we expected,” Smith said. “They did mix it back up and it threw us off a bit.”
WSU (14-5, 4-3) outscored ASU in the paint 34-12, but also burned the Sun Devils on the perimeter. Pac-10 Player of the Year candidate Klay Thompson had another stellar night, scoring 22 points, grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out nine assists, often drawing out the defense and setting up open shots for his teammates.
The Cougars took control of the game in the first half, using a 12-3 run to turn a one-point game into a 22-12 lead with 10:30 to play in the first half.
Five minutes later, another big run, this one a 9-0 spurt, put WSU up 34-18.
The Sun Devils made a run of their own toward the end the half, capped by Jamelle McMillan’s basket at the buzzer to cut WSU’s lead to 41-31 at the break.
The momentum carried into the second half and ASU got within six early, but a pair of three-pointers by Thompson quickly brought the Cougars’ lead back up to 12.
The Sun Devils wouldn’t get any closer.
Senior guard Ty Abbott led ASU with 16 points as all five of his field goals came from beyond the arc. Fellow senior Jamelle McMillan was the only other Sun Devil in double figures with 10.
ASU shot 29 three-pointers, making only 10 of them. From the field, the Sun Devils shot just 32.8 percent, while the Cougars shot a red hot 51.7 percent from the field and 45 percent from beyond the arc.
ASU has now dropped four straight conference games, and things won’t get any easier on Saturday when the Sun Devils head to Seattle to take on No. 20 Washington.
The Huskies are tough to beat on their home court, where they have a 7-1 record.
“They are a terrific basketball team,” Smith said of Washington. “Great depth, experience, and they are at home. It is a big challenge for us; hopefully we embrace it.”
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
