ASU basketball falls to WSU, swept by Washington schools
Jan 28, 2023, 8:07 PM | Updated: 8:50 pm
Arizona State basketball continued its free-fall in the Pac-12 standings on Saturday night against Washington State in a 75-58 loss.
The defeat was ASU’s fourth straight, as just over a week after it face UCLA for the top spot in the conference standings, ASU enters February in the No. 6 spot.
Offensive inconsistency continued to plague the Sun Devils (15-7, 6-5) in Pullman, as they had nearly as many turnovers (10) as field goals (14) 30 minutes in.
But similar to Thursday’s 69-66 overtime loss at Washington, ASU remained competitive in the second half.
Washington State (10-13, 5-7) appeared to be pulling away up 47-34 with 13 minutes left in the game, but its offense plummeted with a 1-for-11 clip. A WSU missed dunk and missed layup led to ASU’s Frankie Collins cutting his squad’s deficit to 50-44 with less than nine minutes remaining.
WSU’s Justin Powell hit a 3 with 7:46 on the clock to end a five-minute field goal drought, but ASU kept coming down five points with 6:45 remaining.
The Cougars never relinquished the lead beyond the midway point of the first half, though, and held on.
ASU finished the contest shooting 33.9% from the field, its third straight game under 40%. Collins led with 16 points on 13 shots Saturday night. Desmond Cambridge Jr. added 15 points and Warren Washington had 12 points, six rebounds and three blocks.
WSU out-rebounded the Sun Devils 47-33 and used a 16-7 edge on the offensive glass to outscore Arizona State 10-0 in second-chance points.
WSU played Arizona State tough the first time the two faced off on Jan. 5, a game ASU won 77-71.
The once 15-3 Sun Devils are in danger of falling to .500 in conference play for the first time this season.
ASU returns home on Thursday to face Oregon State and will take on Oregon Saturday night.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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