Arizona State wakes up to beat Georgia State
Behind a big 20-1 run late in the second half the Arizona State Sun Devils came away with a 75-62 win over upstart Georgia State.
The Sun Devils went through the first half in a zombie type of trance. Sluggish play, no rhythm, and just a very disjointed offense led to Arizona State down by five points at halftime. Being down by five to a Georgia State team that was ranked No. 307 in KenPom made for a precarious feeling. However, coming out in the second half with a full court press and a sharpened offense gave the Sun Devils exactly what they needed to beat the Panthers.
Georgia State came into the game with nothing to lose and the Panthers played that way. Once Georgia State guard, Jakai Newton, put the Panthers up 11 points the Sun Devil crowd got a bit restless. The upstart Panthers were hitting three-pointer after three-pointer. Arizona State had no answer for the Panthers. In fact, the Sun Devils at one point were shooting 14% from beyond the arc.
Arizona State was not showing any fight in them. I was sitting on press row thinking that this is the same team that played inspired basketball against Gonzaga. The term “trap game” was running through my mind as I was watching this game.
“I know coaches use the word like trap game, but this was like a perfect trap game for us,” Bobby Hurley said.
The small crowd of Georgia State fans at the game were celebrating every made basket. During the first 25 minutes of game time the Panthers were making life rough for ASU. Plus, Arizona State wasn’t doing anything to change that narrative. I was starting to wonder if the Sun Devils were going to do anything to change the flow of the game.
The Comeback
The switch was flipped by Arizona State by using a full court press. Over the final 14:20 the Sun Devils outscored the Panthers 34-10. Plus, over the final 6:24 the Sun Devils held the Panthers without a basket. Ironically, the Panthers scored nine three pointers in the early part of the game. However, Georgia State missed their final nine three pointers. Arizona State forced 18 turnovers which were turned into 27 points.
A big part of the comeback was senior guard, Moe Odum, who scored 24 points. Odum also had nine assists and five steals. Odum also was setting up his teammates to score easy baskets as well.
When you look at the final score it still doesn’t give you the uneasiness of this game for the Sun Devils. ASU could not stop anything in the first half. It appeared that they were the lower division team and not the Big 12 Conference team.
“We had some bad, soft closeouts in the first half, and we let them get comfortable hitting threes,” Hurley explained. “The basket was like this big for a while for them because of how good we allowed them to feel at that end. They were shooting like 50% from the field and 50% from three, and we were not guarding anybody. And we lost the last four minutes 12 to two after we took a 32-27 lead. You cannot do that on your home floor.”
At the end of the day, Arizona State learned something about themselves. They can’t take anybody for granted if they want to be taken seriously. The Sun Devils need to play with their proverbial hair on fire every game. If they don’t we will see more losses than wins in Tempe.
Michael J. Wilson-The Daily Waiver
Email: dailywaiver@gmail.com Instagram: @dailywaiver Tik-Tok: @dailywaiver