For the second time in under three weeks, ASU men's basketball played No. 1 UA to a near standstill in the first half.
And for the second time in under three weeks, ASU watched as its rivals stormed ahead in the final 20 minutes, with "U-of-A" chants pervading and Sun Devil fans streaming out minutes before the final buzzer sounded.
In front of a season-high 13,838 fans at Desert Financial Arena, including ASU legends Cam Skattebo and James Harden, the upset bid that felt real for a moment started to slip away, as ASU (11-11, 2-7 Big 12) fell 87-74 to UA (22-0, 9-0 Big 12).
"This game felt … like a mirror of our last game in Tucson," head coach Bobby Hurley said. "Just a really good first half and then, whether they're just too big and physical, they wear you down."
Despite being intertwined for geographical reasons, the Wildcats win continued a trend that's seen these two programs progress in opposite directions. The victory pushed UA to 22-0, the best start in school history, and ASU to a Territorial Cup record of 4-19 under Hurley.
The Sun Devils opened up their afternoon playing some of the best basketball of their season, holding the Wildcats to 42.4% shooting in the first half and matching a physically imposing UA frontcourt on the glass, 23-22.
ASU was able to answer any time the Wildcats went on a mini-run to keep the game within striking distance. Senior guard Moe Odum led both teams in the first half with 12 points on 5-10 shooting, and multiple shots from distance off of pick-and-rolls that ignited the Sun Devil faithful.
A kickout pass from Odum to sophomore guard Noah Meeusen for a wide-open three with two seconds left in the first half sent the crowd into cheers and both teams to the locker room level at 38.
But UA's second-half performance reminded everyone why the Wildcats are a favorite to win the NCAA title this season. NBA draft prospect Koa Peat, an Arizona native who went to Perry High School in Gilbert, led the way with a game-high 21 points on 56% shooting, including his first game with multiple threes this season.
Fifteen of those points came in the second half, with the freshman hammering home dunks in transition or spinning around defenders to finish with a silky floater in the lane.
His first-year running mate and projected NBA draft selection guard Brayden Burries added 17 points and four assists of his own. The Sun Devils had no answer for his burst or for the brute strength of junior center Motiejus Krivas, whose 11 points in the first half kept UA afloat.
UA's physical dominance wasn't unexpected, however, and showed up all over the stat sheet. In their first meeting this year, the Wildcats held a 46-22 advantage on points in the paint. Today, there was an even larger 50-20 discrepancy.
ASU sits at the bottom of the Big 12 in offensive rebound percentage allowed at 33.5%, but UA's 16 still set a season-high by a Sun Devil opponent.
Offensively, ASU began to struggle to finish at the rim. Despite converting just 23.5% of their 17 layup attempts, the Sun Devils felt the Wildcats' interior presence wasn't a major factor.
"We had a lot of good shots, a lot of good layups," Odum said. "I had some good layups at the rim I missed, so it wasn't really their presence. We've just got to make layups. It's that simple."
The Maroon and Gold got outrebounded by 15, missed eight free throws and allowed UA to shoot 60% from the field in the second half, but the most pivotal moment came when Odum picked up his fourth foul with just over 13 minutes left in the game.
That infraction forced ASU's leading scorer to sit for nine minutes, a period in which UA extended its lead to nine.
"That's really tough, because they were having a hard time with high ball screens in the first half," Hurley said. "We put Krivas in a high ball screen with Moe, they were struggling guarding that, and not having him on the floor definitely hurt for that."
Losing to an undefeated Wildcats roster with multiple NBA talents puts ASU in a bucket with 20 other teams that endured the same result, but the way the Sun Devils were unable to maintain their level of play was an unfortunate indication of their roster.
On Jan. 27 against UCF, the Sun Devils coughed up a 12 point lead with more than six minutes left, and are one of just five teams in the Big 12 to have a negative rating in clutch time, according to CBB Analytics.
"They picked theirs up, we let ours down," Odum said, about the teams' intensities. "That's just been the thing the whole season ever since Maui… Until we pick it up, it's going to be the same outcome every time.”
At 11-11 and 2-7 in the Big 12, changes need to be made for ASU to turn its season around, but sometimes, answers aren't obvious.
"There's no way to tell you what I'm going to do," Odum added. "I don't know how I'm going to fix it, but I've got to fix it."
Edited by Sophia Braccio and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at pvallur2@asu.edu and follow @PrathamValluri on X.
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Pratham Valluri is a sports reporter at The State Press. He is a junior majoring in sports journalism with a business minor. He’s in his 5th semester with The State Press working previously as an opinion writer.
