ASU unable to speed up Syracuse, eliminated from NCAA Tournament

The story for the Arizona State Sun Devils going into Wednesday’s First Four game against the Syracuse Orange in the NCAA Tournament was the tempo at which the game would be played.

ASU wanted to go fast, but Syracuse’s slow, plodding offense and disciplined zone defense inevitably kept the tempo low and was the determining factor in the Sun Devils’ 60-56 loss.

“It was a rock fight,” ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said after the game. “And we just didn’t make enough shots.”

Tra Holder spent all night trying to figure out the zone and he struggled, shooting 4-of-15 and finishing with 11 points, six rebounds and four assists. Kodi Justice’s savvy was a more natural fit and his influence on the game was clear. He had 15 points, two rebounds and five assists, hitting six of his 12 shots on the night.

Shannon Evans was the X-factor throughout most of the game, hitting very tough, deep shots over the zone to keep ASU somewhat in rhythm. He ended the night with 14 points, five rebounds and three assists.

“We were aggressive early and later in the half we didn’t make shots,” Evans said. “Feel like that was it.”

Of Evans’ 13 shot attempts, 12 were from deep and he made four of them, but one miss was the most costly of the game.

Down 58-56 with 14 seconds left, Holder got the rebound and Hurley elected to not call a timeout.

Holder made his best play of the night, weaving through the defense to find Evans in the corner.

Evans, seeing the aggressive closeout from his defender, pump faked and moved a step to his right with a wide-open look from deep.

Shannon Evans missed this shot that would’ve given ASU the lead and probably th win pic.twitter.com/w6C9oKSROP

— Jordan Kaye (@jordankaye_23) March 15, 2018

He would miss, though, and Syracuse’s rebound with 0.4 seconds left sealed the win.

“My heart’s broken really that I can’t coach Shannon Evans and Tra Holder and Kodi Justice anymore,” Hurley said of his senior guards. “And that’s sadly disappointing for me.”

Syracuse’s scoring trio had uneven performances. Oshae Brissett was the star, scoring 23 points and grabbing 12 rebounds, while his two primary guards had off-nights. Frank Howard shot 4-of-13 while Tyus Battle was below his 19.8 points per game average with 15.

The Orange only had 10 assists while ASU assisted 19 of its 21 made field goals.

Both teams shot poorly from the foul line. Syracuse was 13-of-23 from the line and ASU was 3-for-10, unable to get by the zone and draw fouls at the rim.

Speaking of the rim, that’s where Syracuse’s ball-handlers failed to get — with the exception of Brissett — despite a notable size advantage.

Battle (6-foot-6), Howard (6-foot-5) and Brissett (6-foot-8) all wanted to be physical and get to the rim, but major credit should go to Holder (6-foot-1), Evans (6-foot-1), Justice (6-foot-5) and Remy Martin (6 feet tall) for holding their own defensively. The isolation basketball the scoring trio plays simplifies things for a defense and that benefitted the Sun Devils, who have struggled all year as defenders.

The on-ball defense was strong and Brissett was the only one getting to the rim consistently. Brissett attempted 11 free throws while Howard and Battle combined for only three, and both failed to score at the rim in the team’s half-court offense except for two floaters.

ASU was letting the Orange scorers shoot and they were taking those open three-pointers, where, as a team, they shot 32.2 percent during the regular season and finished 7-of-20 (35 percent) on the night. Since Battle, Howard and Brissett take over 90 percent of Syracuse’s three-point attempts, there was little to no spacing for them to drive, either, when they did get by the initial defender.

Even in non-shooting situations, ASU wasn’t shy about helping off their man, as Syracuse lacked the playmaking and any other scoring contributions to take advantage of small chances.

“I thought they were very good defensively, and they did a good job on the boards against us,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “They made it very difficult for us to score.

“We watched a lot of tape and they haven’t played defense at this level.”

The offense picking it up for Syracuse is where the breaking point would come in the late second half.

Syracuse’s defense would keep them in the game and the lethargic offense they ran turned into one full of constant slashes at the rim and quick passes to beat rotations for a couple of possessions, and then Brissett and Battle made plays.

With Justice defending, all it took for Brissett was a few dribbles and a slight bump to get Justice off him for an easy midrange jumper to tie the game at 52 with 2:51 to go.

Battle would then isolate Holder the next time down, shaking him back and forth and burying a 3-pointer to make it 55-52 at the 1:52 mark.

That made it a 13-3 run in a little over five minutes, and that small glimpse of sound offensive basketball execution from Syracuse was the driving force to a win.

“I thought we had, when we took the timeout down seven, I thought we had our best possessions all year,” Boeheim said of the run. “We just moved the ball and we got really good shots and made some really good offensive plays.”

On the other end, it was a struggle for ASU to beat the zone. When attacking the zone, teams will often flash a player at the free-throw line. That player is available for a pass and then can make a play from there. The issue early on was that Battle and Howard at the top of the zone were so much taller and longer than ASU’s guards that the passing lane was often too risky for the guards to find, and when it was available, they weren’t consistently seeing the brief openings.

Holder and Evans are the most effective when they are consistent with their dribble penetration and that’s exactly what Syracuse’s zone is designed to prevent. As a duo they averaged 10.7 free throw attempts a game and they combined for just one on Wednesday night.

Nice flashes by Justice off the ball, Hurley running some zone-breaking plays, the Sun Devils eventually figuring out how to get the ball more into the high post more and passes by the other guards on the ball led to more opportunities, and with the lack of scoring the Orange did, it was enough for ASU to keep it tight.

In the end, though, the game was played Syracuse’s way, which made it no surprise to see them come out on top.

Follow @KellanOlson