ASU’s offense can’t match defensive dominance in loss to No. 19 USC

TEMPE — The Arizona State Sun Devils lost another heartbreaker on Thursday night at Desert Financial Arena, falling 58-53 to the No. 19 USC Trojans.

For those that prefer high octane offense in college basketball, look away now, as the Pac-12 matchup featured some pretty abysmal shooting performances from both sides.

ASU (6-13; 2-7 Pac-12) actually was the better shooting team on the night, finishing 33% from the field (22-for-67). The Sun Devils also went 3-for-21 from deep, mustering a 14% clip.

“When they went zone (in the second half), kinda taking away our inside game some and we just couldn’t hit perimieter shots,” Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley said postgame. “That’s kind of been the theme for us this year overall just with our offense.”

USC (19-3; 9-3) wasn’t any better, as the Trojans shot 18 of 60 (30%) from the floor and 6-for-24 from three for a 25% rate.

“It was there for us to be taken, 30% we held them to for the game,” Hurley said. “We did our work on the defensive end. Just didn’t get enough offense when they shifted to zone.”

Despite making more field goals than USC, Arizona State sent the Trojans to the free throw line 25 times, while the Sun Devils only garnered eight attempts from the charity stripe.

USC may have only shot 64%, but the 16 points compared to ASU’s six from the free throw line proved to be a deciding factor.

“The ones in the early half hurt because they get the team almost immediatley knowing that they’re going to be shooting a ton of foul shots,” Hurley explained.

“So we have to do better to start the second half to avoid those situtations. … It seems like that’s really been the difference maker in these games.”

The free throw attempts disparity has become a common theme for the Sun Devils this season, as ASU’s tenacious defense creates a lot of havoc for opposing offenses.

In fact, Arizona State’s defense had a block party on Thursday night, compiling 11 rejections to go along with forcing USC to commit 14 turnovers that led to eight Sun Devil points.

ASU junior forward Jalen Graham had two of those swats and added a career-high 19 points to lead all Sun Devils in scoring. Graham has now scored in double figures five times in his last six games.

However, Arizona State wasn’t able to overcome USC’s size, especially when it came to the offensive glass and second-chance points.

Despite outscoring the Trojans 38-24 in the paint, the Sun Devils were torched on the boards 58-39 (20-9 offensive), which led to 20 USC second-chance points compared to ASU’s seven.

“It’s a long year and this isn’t the first game losing like this,” Arizona State forward Kimani Lawrence said postgame. “It’s been like this for a minute now. We learn how to deal with it, learn how to look forward to the next game.

“We have big games coming up. We still have a chance to do something special. There’s still a lot of season left. College basketball is a tournament game, so we still have a lot of time to make something out of this season.”

After back-to-back road losses to USC, the No. 7 Arizona Wildcats last week and Thursday night’s home defeat to the Trojans, ASU will complete the five-game gauntlet and a three-game homestand against the No. 3 UCLA Bruins on Saturday and Arizona on Monday.

UP NEXT

Arizona State hosts UCLA at 8 p.m. on Saturday Feb. 5 on ESPN 620 AM or 98.7 FM HD-2.

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