Arizona State basketball continues spiral in loss to Colorado, but Shawn Phillips shines

The Arizona State men's basketball team traveled to Boulder for a Pac-12 matchup against Colorado with two streaks on the line, neither of them good for the Sun Devils. ASU came in having lost four straight games and six out of seven, while Colorado had yet to lose at home this season.

Both of those streaks stayed intact as Colorado rolled to an 82-70 victory Thursday night. The Buffaloes (16-7, 7-5) improved to 13-0 at home and got a much-needed win with most NCAA projections having them just out of the tournament field.

ASU (11-12, 5-7) started out both halves slowly but fought its way back, too little, too late. The Sun Devils were within five points at 73-68 on a layup by Frankie Collins with 2:13 left but could get no closer.

ASU shot 44% (27-for-61) and was led by Frankie Collins with 18 points on an 8-for-14 showing from the field. Adam Miller added 14, going 5-for-7.

Colorado shot 47% (24-for-51) and was led by J'Vonne Hadley with 19 points and K.J. Simpson with 17.

What went right

Made run to stay in it early: Colorado led by as many as 18, that lead coming at 31-13. ASU was not shooting well and body language was not good so It looked like a matter of time before it would be trailing by 30. The Sun Devils got back in it with an 11-0, six of those coming on two 3-pointers by Alonzo Gaffney. They were even within four, 37-33.

Shawn Phillips: The 7-footer continues to be the bright spot in the losing streak. He didn't play much last season at LSU and he has needed playing time to develop. A foot injury slowed his progression, but now he's getting the playing time he needed to blossom. He finished with 10 points, four rebounds and a steal. He has scored in double digits in three of the last four games.

What went wrong

Got off to bad start in both halves: The last thing you can afford when you're struggling is to get off to a bad start and ASU did just that. It trailed 18-1 and didn't get its first field goal of the game until the 14:26 mark. For 13 minutes it had more fouls than field goals. The Sun Devils trailed at the half 44-35 and Colorado scored 13 of the first 18 points in the second half.

Rebounding, again: This is perhaps the biggest reason ASU has struggled mightily. The Sun Devils came in ranked 348th out of 351 teams in rebounding margin at minus-8. They lost the battle of the boards 37-29 with Colorado's J'Vonne Hadley grabbing 11. Gaffney's six were most by a Sun Devil.

Second half foul trouble: Gaffney picked up his third foul four minutes into the second half and Frankie Collins was called for his third 15 seconds later. That put both on the bench, albeit briefly because ASU doesn't have any depth. Gaffney picked up his fourth with 11:44 to go and ASU down by seven points. Even as the two played late, the foul trouble makes it difficult to play as aggressively as ASU needs to play, particularly on defense.

Lost at the line: Colorado capitalized at the stripe, making 26 of 29, while the Sun Devils got just 14 attempts, making nine. That ended up being a big difference because ASU actually finished with more field goals than did Colorado, 27-24. Colorado had only one more 3-pointer than did ASU (8-7). A total of 24 fouls were called on ASU, just 13 on the Buffs.

Points off turnovers went the wrong way: When ASU plays well it thrives off opponent mistakes and points off turnovers are in the Sun Devils favor by a wide margin. Not so in this one. Colorado finished with a 17-12 advantage in points off turnovers despite having 13 while ASU had four fewer.

What to look for next time out

The starting lineup: Hurley did indeed make a lineup change, starting 7-footer Shawn Phillips in place of Jose Perez. That ended a streak of 13 straight games in which Perez started alongside Collins, Neal, Gaffney and Miller. This was the seventh starting lineup Hurley has used on the season. Perez did enter at the first timeout three minutes into the game.

Moral victories: The way things started it looked like another road game in which ASU was going to get drummed. Despite starting both halves poorly, the Sun Devils played themselves within striking distance. It will be interesting to see of the Sun Devils can build on that and start better on Saturday.

Up next

The Sun Devils head to Salt Lake City for a 6 p.m. showdown against Utah (15-8, 6-6), which lost to No. 8 Arizona 105-99 on Thursday night in triple overtime.

ASU defeated the Utes 82-70 when the teams played on Jan. 5 at Desert Financial Arena. The Sun Devils shot 50% from the field in that game and were led by Perez with a season-high 26 points and Collins with 19.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Shawn Phillips a bright spot in ASU's Pac-12 loss to Colorado