Sun Devils’ season ends with Pac-12 Tournament loss to Oregon

The Arizona State Sun Devils’ dream of running the table of the Pac-12 Tournament came to an end Thursday afternoon.

A slow start offensively, coupled with foul trouble and a second-half injury spelled the end in ASU’s 91-73 loss to the Oregon Ducks.

With the defeat, ASU finishes the season at 11-14 (7-10 in the Pac-12).

Much like the team’s previous meeting this season, one in which the Ducks won 75-64, the two squads traded blows for a little over half of the first 20 minutes of play. The Ducks held a slim lead over the Sun Devils until ASU broke through with its first lead over Oregon all season thanks to a Jalen Graham layup midway through the half.

Just as it seemed like the Sun Devils had the momentum, however, the Ducks responded, using a 10-0 run to help push the lead up to double digits. On the other side of coin, ASU had to withstand stretches of scoring droughts.

Oregon would find itself up by as many as 11 before heading into halftime with a 35-27 advantage over ASU.

“I think we just had some offensive possessions where we had some decent looks … but I just thought the ball was sticking a little bit too much offensively in the first half,” ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said via Zoom. “They were able to load their defense, we didn’t effectively attack their switches. They were switching about everything.”

Surprisingly, not one of ASU’s 27 points was scored by senior guard Remy Martin.

While he accounted for three assists and a rebound in 18 minutes, Martin was 0-for-3 from the field and recorded two turnovers in the first half.

Picking up the slack was fellow senior guard Alonzo Verge Jr., who led the team at the halfway point with nine points and four rebounds.

It wouldn’t be until a 3-pointer at the 12:04-mark in the second half that Martin would find the bottom of the net.

But in those final 12 minutes of his season, the guard scored 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting, dishing out two assists and grabbing three boards.

As for Verge, he continued to be the team’s top scoring threat, dropping 19 points in the second half to finish with a team-high 28. He added eight rebounds, four assists, one block and a steal.

Unfortunately for ASU, the second-half scoring wouldn’t be enough to counterbalance Oregon’s consistency throughout the game. Especially after the Sun Devils were hit with an injury to yet another key player in senior forward Kimani Lawrence.

“The offensive end did not flow great but I thought we had a chance in the second half. … It just wasn’t meant to be when Kimani went down,” Hurley said.

“It was just such a terrible moment to see a guy that really cared so much about his team and his teammates and has turned his season around and again invested so much into trying to help Arizona State win basketball games. To see him get injured was very upsetting. At that moment, we effectively had very little chance to win the game.”

With 13 minutes left to play, the forward went down hard after attempting to block an Oregon player.

He would need helped off the court and did not return with a left hamstring injury. He finished with five points, six rebounds and an assist in 24 minutes.

Lawrence’s absence marked the fourth impact player out of the lineup for ASU, with Josh Christopher (back), Marcus Bagley (ankle), Taeshon Cherry (personal reasons) also unavailable.

Adding to the availability issues was the team’s foul trouble, highlighted by Graham’s foul-out with 6:28 remaining in the game. He finished with six points and three rebounds. He also committed three turnovers and was assessed a technical foul.

“Jalen just maybe lost his cool for a second and certainly that cost not only the free throws, but just getting another foul and we can’t afford to have him on the court,” Hurley said of Graham’s technical.

ASU would cut Oregon’s lead down from 24 to 16 following Graham’s exit, but just didn’t have enough firepower to mount a comeback.

FREE THROWS

Hurley on the futures of Christopher and Bagley:

“It’s always been, and I’ve been clear on the message with Josh that he’s always intended on playing the season and then turning pro and I have not heard anything otherwise in regards to Josh. Marcus is going to go through his processes as well, but we have not had a chance to sit down and talk with either guy about what their intentions are at this particular moment.”

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