Henri Veesaar’s 22 points help No. 24 Arizona pull away from ASU
Henri Veesaar scored 22 points, Caleb Love added 21 and No. 24 Arizona pulled away for a 113-100 win over rival ASU on Tuesday night.
Head coaches Tommy Lloyd (R) of the Arizona Wildcats and Bobby Hurley of the Arizona State Sun Devils shake hands following the NCAAB game at McKale Center on March 04, 2025 in Tucson, Arizona. The Wildcats defeated the Sun Devils 113-100. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Henri Veesaar scored 22 points, Caleb Love added 21 and No. 24 Arizona pulled away for a 113-100 win over rival Arizona State on Tuesday night.
The Wildcats (20-10, 14-5 Big 12) won the first meeting this season in a game that got so testy at the end Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley pulled his players off the floor before the handshake line.
The rematch had far less animosity, and the scrappy Sun Devils (13-17, 4-15) managed to keep it close late despite being down to five scholarship players after starting guard Adam Miller was injured in the first 28 seconds.
It was the first Division 1 game over the last 15 years where both teams scored 100 or more with 10 or fewer combined turnovers. ASU’s four turnovers were a season low.
Arizona wore down the Sun Devils, shooting 59% with a 52-30 advantage in the paint to earn a double-bye into the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament. KJ Lewis added 21 points.
Alston Mason led Arizona State with 33 points, the most by a Sun Devil since Alonzo Verge had 43 in December 2019.
Arizona had a hard time shaking the Sun Devils until Basheer Jihad (15 points) and Shawn Phillips (14), their only active big men, fouled out in the final 5:12, leaving Arizona State with four scholarship players. The Wildcats pulled away after Arizona State had cut the lead to three.
ASU closes the regular season by hosting Texas Tech, and Arizona plays at Kansas on Saturday.
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Comments
5 Comments
Totally agree. I posted on another board about how ASU's resiliency reminded me of the black knight scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail. ASU kept losing players like the black knight was losing limbs, but kept on coming..."it's just a flesh wound" lol.
Hat tip to ASU. I wish them luck in the B12 tourney (unless, of course, they are playing the Cats.)
Gutty effort by the rag tag devils. Every time UA would build a big lead they would respond though UA would immediately do the same. This ain’t a great UA team but hopefully they can win a game or two in the dance 👍🏼
Why support programs that can not compete at any level?
GO UK, DEVILS & SEC!