Arizona Basketball: No. 6 Wildcats dusted in the desert by Sun Devils
A tough night for Arizona basketball, as the No. 6 ranked Wildcats were upset by in-state rival Arizona State, 81-78, on Saturday.
The Wildcats have had issues in Tempe Arizona in the past, and this week was no exception. Arizona has won six games in a row by an average of 20 points; they are playing excellent basketball on both ends of the court, but that streak has come to an end.
Arizona leads the match-up all time against the Sun Devils with a record of 146-82. In the last 16 games, they each had 8 wins. Their last match-up ended with Arizona on top 73-49, a 24 point win. On Feb 14 2014 in Tempe, ASU won by 3 in double overtime, 69-66 plus Arizona State plays well at home.
Listening to the pregame sounds on the TV broadcast you could hear plenty of very loud Arizona Wildcat fans in attendance who were chanting “U-OF-A”, followed by Arizona State University (ASU) chants of “A-S-U.” Students wore shirts saying “942 Crew Sun Devil Basketball” which stands for the number of seats within the student section at Wells Fargo arena.
Arizona was coming off a 7 day stretch between games, and it looked obvious during the first half of this game.
Gerry Blakes had forfeited 8 turnovers in the first match-up and had already racked up 3 turnovers in this game with 9:35 left in the first half. Last season ASU had a season high 22 turnovers. Arizona made a number of small unnecessary silly fouls early on and Sean Miller wasn’t too happy about them.
He had some words for the referee; one wouldn’t have wanted to be on the other end of that complaint. A similar foul committed on the other side of the court by ASU’s Tra Holder went unnoticed by the referees.
It was an awful first half for the Arizona Wildcats who started the half in total control. Arizona shot 41% in the first half versus Arizona State who shot 53% and out rebounded Arizona 22-14.
Arizona out-rebounded ASU 8-3 in the second half which was good, what was a concern was Johnson racking up 4 fouls with 11:30 minutes to go in the game. Even so, Coach Miller decided to leave him in the game.
Arizona Wildcats
As Arizona State got into some foul trouble, we could see some light hoping forward Goodman racking up 4 fouls as well as forwards Jonathan Gillian and Eric Jacobsen would somehow bring their team down. Arizona still only had one player in trouble with four fouls, starter and freshman star Stanley Johnson.
Desperate to get the game back on track coach Miller put him back in the game with 7:45 left on the clock. Arizona thus far had not been able to get the lead back in the second half.
The next foul had Hollis-Jefferson shooting free throws in front of the ASU student section’s “Curtain of Distraction” which included twerking students with animal heads wearing tutu’s, he only made one out of two. Some fans believe the “Curtain of Distraction” actually distracted the referees in this game but it seems to actually work unfortunately.
The team just could not find a rhythm or a spark from any one player and I kept wondering and sending mental messages to coach Miller to send in Matt Korcheck in to give the team that spark, he had done it before and it worked. Sad to say it never happened.
Missed free throws would haunt the Wildcats for the rest of the game. Sean Miller pumped up his team in a time out, hoping to get his team going. Johnson answered the call with a drive to the basket a made lay-up after the follow-up attempt which ended up with Tarczewski landing hard on the court after what looked like a choke hold tackle, but no replay or flagrant foul was called by the referees.
The game made my heart pound almost out of my chest, it was one of those close and exciting games which could go either way. Either fans were going to be jumping up and down and screaming in pure joy at a comeback win, or be sitting wherever they were watching the game shaking their head with a pit in their stomach. The intentional-foul-shoot-free-throws dance continued as Jacobsen made two more free throws.
The Players on the ASU bench were already locking arms watching the clock winding down planning their possible celebration, this may have been a little to early though as on the next in-bound play, ASU makes a monumental mistake and runs out of time to get the ball into play.
With this turnover, the ball goes to Arizona. Ashley scores quick two but Arizona State is still ahead by five points, 77-72, and again went to the free throw line. It was a three possession game.
Feb 7, 2015; Tempe, AZ, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils guard Bo Barnes (33) shoots a three point basket over Arizona Wildcats forward Stanley Johnson (5) during the second half at Wells-Fargo Arena. The Sun Devils won 81-78. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
On the next in-bounds play a controversial missed pass and possible tip by Brandon Ashley was reviewed at length and that too went the Sun Devil’s way. Gilling was then forced to take a time out on the repeat in-bounds play with no one open to pass to.
After the final Arizona Wildcat intentional foul, Barnes shoots two free throws making 8 of 8 in the game with and scoring a total of 18 points.
McConnell then hits a 3-pointer, but it’s too little too late as ASU pulls off the upset on their home court by a score of 81-78. The Sun Devils were able to keep up that same nagging 4 point lead Arizona just couldn’t get past.
So the Arizona State Sun Devils upset the Arizona Wildcats. What led to the loss was a poor shooting percentage of 45%, missed free throws (8-14 made), Tarczewski being held to only two points (but had 9 rebounds), foul trouble for 4 players and a couple of key missed 3 pointers at the end of the game.
Wildcat fans are looking forward to the next game realizing there are 8 games to go before the end of the season, then come the tournaments. This loss stings, but Wildcat fans believe in Sean Miller and his team.
Next up: University of Washington (14-8) Friday, February 13, 6:00 PM on ESPN, ESP3 Alaska Airlines Arena, Seattle, Washington