This surely wasn’t the way ASU men’s basketball pictured its season opener.
It’ll go down in the win column for the Sun Devils, defeating Montana State 78-72, but the victory wasn’t pretty.
With 2:17 left in the game, ASU (1-0) led 70-60, but almost let the lead slip away.
The Bobcats went on a 12-5 run, capped by senior guard Rod Singleton’s three-pointer with 13 seconds left, to cut the deficit to 75-72.
Sophomore forward Kyle Cain grabbed a critical rebound and sunk both free throws to seal the victory with two seconds left.
“I just don’t think we did a very good job of concentrating, of being alert, of being aware,” coach Herb Sendek said. “I don’t think we played very smart. As the old adage goes, you shoot your own toes off. Right now, we’d be walking around with club feet.”
The Sun Devils had the same amount of turnovers, 22, as field goals made. That’s the most turnovers during Sendek’s tenure at ASU. Thirteen of those turnovers came in the first half, which kept Montana State in the game down 33-21 despite shooting 17.9 percent in the opening half.
“Some of the mental mistakes we made, I have no explanation for because we should be more advanced than that by the time you get a scholarship to Arizona State,” Sendek said.
In the second half, the Sun Devils defense broke down and allowed 51 points. The Bobcats shot 47.2 percent from the floor, including 7-for-14 from outside the perimeter.
On the glass, it wasn’t a different story. The Sun Devils, who ranked last in the Pac-10 in rebounding last season, were outrebounded 19-15 in the second half.
“We did not play very smart, and we did not rebound the basketball,” Sendek said. “And that’s a bad combination.”
Montana State grabbed 11 of their 17 offensive rebounds in the second half and turned them into 19 second-chance points.
Sophomore forward Tre Johnson led Montana State with seven offensive rebounds, while sophomore forward Shawn Reid had six.
“(It’s) continuing from last year,” junior forward Trent Lockett said. “They outrebounded us. They got 17 second chance shots. I think that’s a stat that we’ll definitely try to fix and we’ll look at what we can do on film. But really it’s just aggression and going after the ball.”
Lockett was the only consistent offensive presence for the Sun Devils. He had his second career double-double, leading the team with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
“I thought he really put us on his shoulders with his toughness as reflected by his 10 rebounds and allowed us to hold on for a hard-fought win,” Sendek said.
Sophomore guard Keala King was right behind Lockett with a career-high 16 points. King worked on his jumper throughout the summer and the improvement was noticeable after the game’s first shot. King drilled a three-pointer six seconds into the game and finished the game 3-for-4, already better than last season’s 1-for-18 ratio.
Junior point guard Chris Colvin finished with 10 points and five assists, but could have had more. The junior college transfer showed promise in the first half dictating the up-tempo style ASU wants to run this season. At times Colvin made passes in tight spots that his teammates didn’t appear to be ready for, leading to a team-high seven turnovers.
“He’s a great player and he can obviously create a lot of opportunities for other guys in the lane,” Lockett said. “But maybe guys are just getting used to it and to different situations where they’re not used to receiving the ball when he throws a behind the back pass.”
All five starters were in double figures. The Sun Devils shot 80 percent from the free-throw line, including 6-for-6 from junior forward Ruslan Pateev and 4-for-4 from sophomore forward Kyle Cain.
“I was happy with the way our big guys shot the ball form the line… and that’s about it right now,” Lockett said.
The Sun Devils did only have four weeks of practice to prepare for the second earliest start in ASU history. The Sun Devils have a few days to learn from its season opener before their next opponent, Pepperdine, on Tuesday.
“It’s really incumbent upon us to get better in every way and we’ll do that,” Sendek said. “We’ll get back tomorrow together. We’ll watch the tape and I’m sure we’ll make some good improvements.
Reach the reporter at master.tesfatsion@asu.edu
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