Sun Devils' efforts fall short in loss to Bruins
Lack of depth and size have been Arizona State men’s basketball’s two most crippling issues this season. On Thursday night, the first was highlighted by ASU’s starters playing all but one minute, the second by No. 5 UCLA’s advantage in points in the paint and rebounds.
Given those circumstances, the Sun Devils seemed to play as well as possible against a team many pundits expect to make a deep run in March. ASU kept the game within considerable striking distance in the second half, but the two issues held it back.
UCLA (25-3, 12-3 Pac-12) defeated ASU (13-16, 6-10) 87-75 in front of 10, 176 at Wells Fargo Arena. ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said he thought his team hung in the best it could.
“I think if we had played our best offensive game or somewhere close to that, that we would’ve had a great chance based on how we defended,” he said. “I thought we guarded the line fairly well on defense, but on the flip side, there wasn’t a lot of help around the basket. We got hurt in the paint. They’re so balanced that way. They have the inside scoring and exceptional perimeter guys. They’re the real deal.”
ASU’s lack of size is no secret, but it was perhaps more apparent than ever against UCLA. Junior guard Kodi Justice was regularly defending Bruins 7-foot junior center Thomas Welsh and 6-foot-10 freshman forward TJ Leaf, who scored 25 points.
The Bruins had 50 points in the paint and held a 19-rebound advantage. Even when ASU made runs and seemed to play good defense, UCLA was able to go back to its size advantage.
“They have bigs that are top 20 picks in the NBA Draft,” Justice said of Welsh and Leaf. Even if we had bigs, they’re still going to put up numbers. If we come up with a few more rebounds here or a few more stops there, we might see a different result. But I feel like we battled the whole game.”
ASU’s starters had played the whole game until freshman forward Ramon Vila replaced Justice at the 13:06 mark of the second half. Vila played a minute, then Justice returned.
Hurley said he was going to make substitutions at one point in the first half, but none of the starters wanted to exit the game. He said playing his starters so much was more of a “feel thing” because he trusted them most in a big game against a top-5 team.
“We’re young, we can fight through that,” Justice said. “We got timeouts to catch our breath.”
When asked if the starters had played that much in any other game, senior guard Torian Graham said they did during the USC game. In that game, however, only Graham and junior guard Tra Holder played all 40 minutes. Senior forward Obinna Oleka and junior guard Shannon Evans II each sat for four minutes, and Justice for five.
UCLA started the game just 2 of 10 from the floor, but ASU didn’t take full advantage. The Sun Devils struggled a bit themselves and were only able to take a four-point lead early in the first half.
The Bruins led by nine at halftime, but ASU quickly responded with a 7-0 run to start the second half. UCLA called timeout, the crowd was back into it and ASU looked as if it could regain the lead after cutting it to a point shortly after the timeout ended.
Then UCLA stretched its lead a bit. And while ASU hung around, the Bruins eventually led by 18 in the second half.
ASU cut the deficit to 10 points with 2:10 to play. But after all the minutes played and energy expended, the Sun Devils didn’t have one last run in them.
“I feel like they got some tough offensive rebounds and they were able to get some open shots off the kick out off the rebound or get an easy putback,” Graham said.
Graham’s game-high 28 points on 9 of 19 shooting and 7-for-14 from 3-point range and Justice’s 19 kept the Sun Devils in the game. However, they missed contributions from regular contributors like Holder and Evans.
Holder scored just five points on 1-for-8 shooting and Evans had 11, but on 4 of 14 shooting. Their struggles didn’t allow ASU to fully compete on the offensive end, regardless of what it did on defense.
“Those two guys weren’t as good as they’re capable of being and we were very competitive,” Hurley said.
UCLA sixth-man sophomore guard Aaron Holiday scored 17 points and senior guard Bryce Alford added 15 to help Leaf carry the load. Stud freshman guard Lonzo Ball — the potential top pick in this year’s NBA Draft — scored just four points, but had 11 rebounds and five assists.
And while Hurley lauded his team’s defensive effort, its lack of depth and size held it back. Those issues were perhaps unavoidable against a potent UCLA team that was inevitably going to exploit them.
“It just looked like we were in a decent rebounding position and it just comes down to the length and the size,” Hurley said. “It seemed like Welsh just had to extend his arm and it was good enough over Tra or Shannon at times where they did get the offensive rebounds.
It’s hard to be upset because I saw how they competed and how much energy they expended playing tonight. I’m very proud of that.”
ASU hosts USC on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. MST as it looks to split the weekend. The Sun Devils will face the same challenges they did on Thursday and have all season.
They have overcome a lack of size and depth with great guard play at times throughout this season. But there is no quick fix for those issues, which are both personnel related.
Still, ASU will need to find a way as the regular season nears its close and the conference tournament approaches.
“I wouldn’t trade the five we have on the court for anybody,” Justice said.
