There is an obvious weakness on the ASU men’s basketball team and it keeps coming back to bite them.
On Thursday night, yet another Pac-10 big man dominated the Sun Devils inside. This time it was USC forward Nikola Vucevic, who was an unstoppable force in the paint.
ASU missed 13 free throws and Vucevic, a junior from Montenegro, scored 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead USC to a 63-61 victory at Wells Fargo Arena, the Trojans’ first in Tempe since 2006.
The loss was ASU’s fourth in a row and sixth straight conference defeat, dropping the Sun Devils to 9-11 overall and 1-7 in the Pac-10.
“Rebounding continues to be a real challenge for us,” ASU coach Herb Sendek said. “Rebounding is not a strength of our team right now and that perhaps more than any other single factor has put us behind the eight ball together with our struggles to defend front courts.”
Sendek knew coming in that USC (12-9, 4-4) was going to get the ball to Vucevic, especially with ASU’s struggles defending the post.
Because of that, he tried sending the point guard to double team Vucevic whenever he caught the basketball. At first it caused a few turnovers, but as the game wore on, Vucevic found an open teammate or worked through the double team.
“We still didn’t do a very good job,” ASU senior guard/forward Rihards Kuksiks said. “Vucevic got 26 and 12. That’s a lot of points right there in the paint.”
Leading 43-39 with 13:58 remaining, ASU went cold and scored just two points in 7 minutes and 16 seconds.
USC took advantage and rattled off a 14-2 run to take a 53-45 lead.
With ASU needing a spark offensively, Kuksiks provided one, hitting three shots from beyond the arc. His last one cut USC’s lead to 57-56 with 3:06 to play.
Kuksiks, who Sendek said had his best week at practice of the season, was rewarded with a start and hit two free throws with 1:05 on the clock to even the score at 58-58.
When they needed a bucket, USC knew exactly where to go.
The pass was intended for Vucevic, but it sailed high and out of bounds. However, freshman forward Kyle Cain was called for a push in the back of Vucevic, sending him to the line.
He hit both foul shots to give USC the lead at 60-58.
Out of the timeout, Sendek designed a play to get senior guard Ty Abbott the ball in the post. When nothing was there, Abbott tried to dish the ball off, but it went off of a knee and into the hands of the Trojans.
“We thought we had a mismatch with Ty,” Sendek said. “We felt if we got the ball to him in the post, it would create either a scoring opportunity for him or perhaps a kick out for somebody else.”
Abbott didn’t end up getting the look he expected.
“They kind of came with help in the middle and I tried to dump it down to Kyle down there on the baseline and I think it went off the guys’ knee,” Abbott said. “That’s all me right there.”
USC freshman guard Maurice Jones hit a pair of free throws to increase the lead to four, but ASU sophomore guard Trent Lockett hit a wide-open three pointer to cut it to 62-61 with 20 seconds left.
The Sun Devils fouled USC freshman forward Garrett Jackson, a 44 percent free throw shooter, and he made just one of two free throws.
On the ensuing possession, Abbott took a wild three-pointer for the win and missed. The ball went out of bounds to the Sun Devils, but with just 0.5 seconds on the clock.
Abbott got another look at a game-winning three, but missed again.
On the final play, sophomore guard/forward Carrick Felix appeared to have a step on his defender heading to the bucket for the lob pass, but senior guard Jamelle McMillan passed on taking the chance.
“We didn’t have a real good angle because the ball was low on the sideline,” Sendek said. “One of the options was to try and get Carrick something at the rim. It is hard to ascertain what Jamelle could see in that situation.”
The stat that will haunt ASU is the points they left at the free throw line.
The Pac-10’s worst free throw shooting team, ASU went just 12-for-25 at the charity stripe against USC.
“You have to just get up there and knock them down,” Abbott said. “I missed two big ones in the end and one in the first half as well. If you just count my three right there, that’s game. We win.”
As the losses start to pile up, Sendek sees no reason why ASU can’t bounce back with the same effort.
“It is a painful voyage right now,” Sendek said. “We all share it, we all feel it. We are going to go through it together, we aren’t going to run from it.”
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
