DePaul 78, Arizona State 61
TEMPE, Ariz. - Senior reserve Worrel Clahar scored a season-high 14 points and junior Brandon Young had 18 as DePaul stretched its winning streak to five games with a 78-61 victory over Arizona State on Wednesday at Wells Fargo Arena, sending the Sun Devils to their first home loss of the season.
Clahar, a 5-foot-11 guard, changed the complexion of the game when entered after only 4 1/2 minutes, scoring 10 of his points in the first half as DePaul (7-3) opened leads of up to 14 points after falling behind 7-0. The Big East Blue Demons led by as many as 22 points in the second half.
Young, a 6-foot-4 junior guard, became the 11th player in DePaul history with 1,000 points and 300 assists while scoring in double figures for the 14th consecutive game. He had nine assists Wednesday.
Arizona State (9-2) had a four-game winning streak stopped while losing to an unranked team for the first time this season. The Sun Devils' only other loss was to then-No. 14 Creighton, 87-73, in the championship game of the Las Vegas Invitational on Nov. 24.
Evan Gordon, Jahii Carson and Carrick Felix had 12 points apiece for Arizona State, while 7-foot-2 center Jordan Bachynski had 10. Bachynski was coming off the first triple-double in Arizona State history, when he had 13 points, 12 rebounds and a school-record 12 blocked shots in an 87-76 victory over Cal State Northridge on Saturday. He was the fourth player in Pac-12 history to get his triple-double in those categories.
DePaul shot 50.0 percent from the field and held a 44-34 rebounding edge
Arizona State shot 43.1 percent and made 3-of-15 3-point attempts and 8 of 19 free throws.
With Carson taking charge, Arizona State scored the first seven points of the game. Carson had a driving layup, two free throws and an assist. From there, DePaul took over, using a full-court press to create a tempo that changed the first half.
Clahar came off the bench to score 12 points and add two assists in the first half, keying two DePaul bursts. The Blue Demons went on a 21-8 run to open a six-point lead with seven minutes remaining in the half.
After Bachynski made a couple of short shots in the lane to keep Arizona State close, DePaul went on a 15-5 run, fueled by seven points from Clahar and five from Young. It was 40-26 before Arizona State closed its halftime deficit to 42-33.
DePaul had a decisive 26-18 rebounding edge in the first half, when Arizona State missed seven of its 13 free-throw attempts.
NOTES: DePaul won the teams' previous meeting, taking a 68-64 neutral-court decision in the Old Spice Classic on Nov. 27, 2011, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Young had 13 points and six assists in that game. ... Freshman Carson led the Pac-12 and was eighth in the NCAA with 77 free-throw attempts entering the game. ... Arizona State was attempting to start a season 9-1 for the fifth time in 38 years. James Harden's second and final Arizona State team was 12-1 in 2008-09. ... DePaul finishes its pre-Big East season with games against Northern Illinois, Maryland-Baltimore County and Loyola-Chicago.
