Fork Report: ASU rallies to beat Colorado

Sure, you could read the box score and know who won, but we all know that won’t tell you everything that happened in a basketball game. So, we will give you a fork report, providing you with the analysis, quotes and notes from ASU’s win over Colorado. Final score: Arizona State 65, Colorado 56.

TEMPE — Arizona State stormed back from an early 17-4 deficit to beat Colorado 65-56 in front of a season-high crowd of 6,298 at Wells Fargo Arena.

Carrick Felix led the way with 20 points and 8 rebounds, while Jordan Bachynski added 16 points, 7 rebounds and 9 blocked shots.

The Good

Reserve guard Chris Colvin played a big part in the win, supplying 31 energetic minutes off the bench. Colvin scored points, grabbed 4 rebounds and handed out a team-high 5 assists.

Arizona State’s defense was superb for a large portion of the game, but notably in the second half, when they held Colorado to just 23 points on 26.8% shooting from the field.

Forward Jonathan Gilling asserted himself on the boards, grabbing a team-high 10 rebounds. “We’ve turned him into Dennis Rodman,” ASU head coach Herb Sendek said following the game. It was Gilling’s third double-digit rebounding game this season. The Danish sophomore is averaging 7.4 boards per game after averaging only 1.8 per contest as a freshman.

ASU had five turnovers in the first 7:06 of the game when the Buffaloes were able to build their 13-point lead. But the Sun Devils regrouped and took much better care of the basketball the rest of the way, committing only five over the last 32:54.

The Bad

ASU’s free throw shooting continues to be horrendous, but amazingly hasn’t cost them in a game yet this season. The Devils were 20-of-33 from the stripe, and that included six consecutive makes to end the game.

And it’s hard to put his performance in the “bad” category because of all he did to contribute to the win, so we’ll just point out that freshman guard Jahii Carson had a season-low five points on only 1-of-4 shooting. Carson did have four rebounds and three assists in 38 minutes, and did a solid job defensively.

He Said It:

“They’re a great team. They won the Pac last year, and they’re going to be a forced to be reckoned with this year so for us to be able to step up and play like we did and come up with a win — I mean it wasn’t in overtime, so I think that’s a little bit better than our friends down south, but they’re a great team and I definitely feel like this is a huge win for us.” — ASU center Jordan Bachynski, making reference to Arizona’s controversial overtime win over Colorado Thursday night in Tucson.

Noted

• Bo Barnes, a sophomore transfer, scored his first points of the season when he hit a three-pointer midway through the first half. Barnes’ three also seemed to ignite ASU, which went on a 27-16 run to close out the half down only three points, 33-30.

• ASU is 2-0 in Pac-10/Pac-12 play for only the fourth time. The Sun Devils started 5-0 in 1979-80, 4-0 in 1987-88 and 4-0 in 2007-08.

• Jordan Bachynski’s nine blocked shots give him a total of 68 for the season, just one behind Tommy Smith’s mark of 69 in 2002-03 for the fourth-most in a single season in ASU history.

• From the 17:36 mark of the first half to the 1:52 mark of the second, Colorado missed 12 straight three-point shots. The Buffaloes finished 2-of-19 from behind the arc. CU came into the game hitting .404 of their long-distance shots.

• Colorado forward Andre Roberson had a season-low five points, but did finish with 13 rebounds — his 11th double-digit rebound effort of the season.

• Former ASU coach Bill Frieder and ASU Hall of Famer Alton Lister were both in attendance.

Up Next

The Sun Devils hit the road for their next two contests. They’ll face Oregon State in Corvallis Thursday night. The game tips off at 9:30 p.m. and can be heard on Arizona Sports 620.

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