Freshman guard Tra Holder takes on the Oregon State Beavers defense on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena. The Sun Devils went on to win the game against OSU. (J. Bauer-Leffler/The State Press)After coming off a tremendous 73-55 win against Oregon State where ASU (11-10, 3-5 Pac-12) dominated in the first half, the Sun Devils will be hosting Oregon to finish out the home stand.
“A good win for us,” Herb Sendek said. “We have another pretty short turnaround, so we will get ready for Friday.”
The Ducks (16-7, 4-4) are coming off a bitter 90-56 loss against No. 6 Arizona, who is ranked first in the Pac–12. Oregon is ranked fifth in the conference. Redshirt junior forward Elgin Cook had a team high 16 points in the loss.
Redshirt sophomore guard Joseph Young leads Oregon in scoring, averaging 19.3 points per game. Young also leads his team in both free throw shooting and assists, averaging 92.2 percent from the line and 3.5 assists per game.
Freshman forward Dillon Brooks averages the second-most points on the team with 13.2 points a game. Cook is the third-highest scorer on the team, averaging 11.9 points a game.
All three players shoot above 40 percent from the field, with Cook leading the three, shooting 49.4 percent from the field.
Freshman forward Jordan Bell is the top rebounder for the Ducks, averaging 7.2 boards a game. Bell also shoots the ball efficiently, leading his team in averaging 59.6 percent from the field.
The last time the Sun Devils played Oregon was back on Jan. 10 in Eugene, where ASU fell to the Ducks 59-56. The Sun Devils shot a paltry 40.4 percent from the field that night and shot abysmally from beyond the arc, going 3-for-17 in making just 17.6 percent of their attempts. Their performance at the free throw line also left something to be desired, as the team shot just 57.7 percent in the loss.
But that was then. The Sun Devils have won three of their last four conference match ups, and have been improving in almost every aspect.
“I can tell you, putting our team under a microscope, we've gotten better this month,” Sendek said. “We are improving as a team. You could win, and be getting worse, you could be winning and not playing well. You could be losing and getting better, and making progress and playing good basketball. Outcome and competition aside, just watching our guys every day, we are getting better.”
The Sun Devils host Oregon on Friday at 6 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
Reach the reporter at mtsteine@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @MarcTSteiner
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