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ASU men's basketball's season debut spoiled by Sacramento State

A lackluster effort has the Sun Devils behind the eight ball to open their season

Junior forward Savon Goodman (11) attempts to block a shot in the first half against Sacramento State on Friday, Nov. 13, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. The Hornets defeated the Sun Devils 66-63.

Junior forward Savon Goodman (11) attempts to block a shot in the first half against Sacramento State on Friday, Nov. 13, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. The Hornets defeated the Sun Devils 66-63.


On the first possession of Friday's season opener, senior forward Willie Atwood pulled up and airballed a 3-pointer, sending the night off to a rocky start. With the game off to a strange beginning, not much of what followed made sense to the faithful at Wells Fargo Arena hoping for a win for the ASU men's basketball team.

The Sun Devils (0-1) fell to the Sacramento State Hornets 66-63 at  Friday to give the Bobby Hurley era of Sun Devil basketball an inauspicious start.

Overcoming the odd start, ASU seized a nine-point lead seven minutes in to the game on the strength of a quick 7-0 outburst that looked like it could have set off a longer run. Instead of building on the momentum, though, ASU pulled back to the dismay of its new head man.

"I thought we played a little bit nervous in the first half, for some reason," Hurley said. "Just having issues with simple things like catching the ball and it became infectious."

Those errors piled up for ASU, which led to a deficit at the end of the first half. While ASU is learning how to play for Hurley, senior forward Eric Jacobsen refused to use it as a reason for the performance.

"We're all still learning and all that, but it's no excuse to give up a game like this," Jacobsen said. "This is just a plain loss and we've just got to get back and work on it."

The Sun Devils shot a paltry 35.7 percent from the field in the first half and did not make a 3-pointer, allowing the Hornets to go into the locker room with a six-point lead.

One way Sacramento State was able to keep it close was offensive rebounds, of which they snatched nine, leading to just three second chance points. What it did do was keep the Sun Devils out of transition, something Hurley has emphasized he wants to do.

Despite the troubles and lack of pace, the Sun Devils held a 10-point lead with 11:37 left in the game after a free throw by senior forward Jacobsen  that appeared to give them the momentum necessary to finish the game out.

That's when the Hornet guards did their damage. For the remainder of the game, Graves and Demps outscored ASU 23-15 to take a three-point lead with 24 seconds left, leaving the Sun Devils with one last chance to make a play.

With time winding down, sophomore guard Tra Holder held the ball, looking for an open man. Panicking, he passed the ball to senior guard Gerry Blakes, whose shot grazed the rim to seal ASU's fate.

With a double-digit lead in the second half, it's hard for ASU not to see this as a missed opportunity and Jacobsen said as much, saying they need to be able to finish games better.

"You have to be able to put teams away," Jacobsen said. "We let them hang around and they got too comfortable. When you do that, guys are going to make shots. They're college basketball players, everyone is good everywhere."


Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.

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