Assistant coach Scott Pera doesn’t use his Twitter account often, but prior to the Sun Devils’ game against Washington State he tweeted, “About to depart the Davenport Hotel in Spokane for the trek to Pullman. Play at Wash. State. Need total team effort today.”
Eight points in the first half wasn’t the total team effort he was looking for. The ASU men’s basketball team (8-19, 4-11 Pac-12) was down 28 points at halftime en route to a 72–50 loss on Saturday.
The Sun Devils shot 16.7 percent from both the floor and 3-point range in the first half, making just three field goals. Junior guard Trent Lockett and freshman wing Chanse Creekmur each had a team-high three points.
At the end of the first half, ASU had more turnovers than points.
“I was actually probably on the court a little more than normal before warm ups, looking them in the eye, trying to make sure they were ready to go,” Pera said during a radio interview after the game. “I got a lot of reassurance that they were — a complete misread by me and a complete breakdown by us.”
The Cougars (14-13, 6-9 Pac-12) went into the locker room on a 15-0 run in the final eight minutes of the half. They shot 48.1 percent from the floor.
Washington State broke down ASU’s defense with its ball movement. The Cougars’ ability to make the extra pass created uncontested 3-point attempts. They made six of their nine 3-point attempts in the first half.
Freshman guard DaVonte Lacy went 4-for-9 from 3-point range. He had a team-high 17 points. Junior forward Brock Motum also contributed 16 points in the win.
As lopsided of a game as it was at halftime, ASU nearly drew the deficit to single digits.
Pera said pride was the focal message at halftime, and the Sun Devils responded by shooting 5-for-5 to start the second half.
They outscored Washington State 23-7 in the first eight minutes and cut the deficit to 43-31 with 13:06 left. The Sun Devils used a press and pressured the Cougars into six turnovers. ASU got stops in the half-court set as well — an exact opposite on both ends of the floor compared to the first half.
Junior guard Chris Colvin scored 16 of his game-high 18 points in the second half. He went 5-of-6 from the field, including a perfect 2-for-2 from 3-point range in the game. Colvin also got to the free throw line seven times, sinking six.
Once Washington State adjusted to the pressure, it broke through ASU’s press for three straight uncontested buckets. It went on a 7-0 run in 63 seconds to increase the lead to 50-31.
“You just can’t dig that deep of a hole,” Pera said. “Home, road, anywhere you play, because every mistake you make becomes so magnified. Then you’ll have to be perfect to make the comeback to the point where you can actually try and manage the game to try and win it. Our guys competed, that’s to their credit, but just a sluggish, horrific start tonight.”
With their final three games at home, the Sun Devils finished their conference road schedule on a seven-game losing streak in which they were outscored by a total of 128 points.
ASU will try to snap its three-game losing streak next week when UCLA and USC come to Wells Fargo Arena before closing the regular season against UA on Mar. 4.
“Fortunately, the last three games are at home, and hopefully we can carry a couple wins and build into the offseason on some positives because we certainly don’t want to end it on things like this,” Pera said. “This was not acceptable.”
Reach the reporter at mtesfats@asu.edu
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