The beast was almost slain.
However, at the last moment it escaped from the grasp of the ASU men’s basketball team.
Locked in a one-possession game in the final minutes, the Sun Devils had a chance to do the unthinkable: win at Alaska Airlines Arena, a place no team has won at this season, and possibly turn their season around.
Instead, Washington (15-4, 7-1 Pac-10) rose to the challenge and seized control late, holding off the Sun Devils 88-75, and sending ASU (9-10, 1-6) into last place in the Pac-10 conference.
At first glance, Saturday’s contest appears to be an average double-digit loss, but the final score doesn’t do the game justice.
From the opening tip, ASU competed with the Pac-10 leaders. The Sun Devils and Huskies traded blows, and ASU trailed by just three points with 2:48 remaining in the game.
In the end, it still goes in the books as ASU’s fifth straight conference defeat.
“I think we came into this game with the right mindset, and we competed,” ASU coach Herb Sendek said. “That being said, defensively we still had a hard time getting the kind of stops you need to win. Second chance points and points in the paint continue to hurt us.”
After watching Washington State’s DeAngelo Casto tear them up inside on Thursday, UW’s Matthew Bryan-Amaning decided to one-up his Pac-10 counterpart.
The 6-foot-9-inch senior carved up the Sun Devils to the tune of a career-high 30 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
All afternoon long, ASU had no answer for the man they call MBA.
“I know their interior defense isn’t as good,” Bryan-Amaning said. “That’s why they pressure up a lot. So, I just had to carve out space.
“Coach told us there was going to be a lot of one-on-one coverage and I should be able to get open tonight so that’s what we tried to do. I love [one-on-one coverage].”
Lately, ASU’s defense as a whole has been struggling. UW’s 88 points were the most allowed in regulation during Sendek’s tenure in Tempe.
In years' past, teams have struggled to shoot a high percentage against ASU’s matchup zone defense, but recently, teams are shooting over 45 percent against it.
“I don’t think it is a function of scheme,” Sendek said. “It isn’t a function of trickery. No matter what defense you play, you still have to tackle. Our problem isn’t the scheme, it’s tackling, so to speak.
“If we played man to man they could just as easily run an action and get the ball inside. It comes down to the basic fundamentals.”
Senior guard Ty Abbott and sophomore guard Trent Lockett paced ASU with 20 points apiece, followed by senior guard/forward Rihards Kuksiks with 11.
Outside of Bryan-Amaning’s 30 points, UW got 19 from junior point guard Isaiah Thomas and 10 from junior guard Scott Suggs.
Now the Sun Devils find themselves somewhere they haven’t been since Sendek’s first season, the basement of the Pac-10.
While it will go down as another loss, Sendek saw progress in it.
“We aren’t going to go anywhere,” Sendek said. “We are going to keep working and be resilient. We have high-character guys who are going to show up ready for battle. As our guys learn what it takes I think we will continue to get better. I definitely think tonight was a step in the right direction.”
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
