Arizona State suffered their first loss in Pac-12 play. Washington defeated the Sun Devils, 82-67. The Huskies are now 10-6 and 2-3 in conference play. ASU fell to 10-6 and 4-1 in the Pac-12.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The Sun Devils got off to a 4-0 start in Pac-12 play behind the play of their defense. They won the turnover battle in each of those four games.
ASU also won the turnover battle against Washington but it was not enough. They were able to force Washington into 15 turnovers and score 20 points off of those turnovers. The Huskies only scored seven points off of turnovers.
Arizona State scored 13 more points off of turnovers than Washington and still lost by 15. Washington was able to overcome the turnovers with their shooting.
The Huskies shot 50.8% from the floor and 52% from three. ASU shot 40.7% from the floor and 23.5% from three point range.
Washington made 13 three pointers compared to four for Arizona State. This was one of the big differences in the game.
Winning In Different Ways
In ASU’s first win in conference play, they defeated Stanford, 76-73. The Sun Devils only shot 31% from three but Stanford only made four three pointers in the game.
Against California, Arizona State only made 32.3% of his threes. This was not good but the Golden Bears were horrible from three. They shot 18.5% from three in that game.
ASU had a great game from beyond the arc against Utah. The Sun Devils made 42.9% of their threes in that game compared to 31.8% for the Utes.
In the game against Colorado, the Buffaloes and Sun Devils were pretty much even from three point range. ASU scored 27 points off of turnovers and that was what led to their victory.
The big question is, was the shooting performance of Washington a one-off. Their point guard Sahvir Wheeler shot 5/5 from three, which seems like a fluke considering he didn’t made a three pointer in his previous six games.
So, ASU can come to the conclusion that this game against Washington was just bad luck and they should still be able to win off of the strength of their defense.
The lack of shooting may be a problem against the upper echelon teams of the Pac-12 like Arizona and Oregon. They play at Oregon on January 25th and at Arizona on February 17th.
Hopefully, ASU can improve their outside shooting prior to those match-ups.
Arizona State falls to Washington, 82-67, after late game surge by the Huskies
