A strong Sun Devils basketball start got halted against a ranked opponent.
Starting off the season strong with back-to-back 81-point game victories for the Sun Devils. A defense that is holding the competition under 70 points a game. Arizona State was looking promising up against Southern Utah and Utah Tech.
On Friday they had the first real challenge of the season to face, #19 Gonzaga.
Coming into this game, Gonzaga had faced some challenges like #23 Creighton, which they beat by 27 points. Additionally, they had no problem facing Oklahoma and getting the victory at home.
Safe to say that Gonzaga was a little better prepared going into play ASU, yet still a very challenging road trip to Tempe.
The Bulldogs did end up with a hard-fought 77-65 victory over the Sun Devils on Friday, going now on a four-game win streak and snapping the newly started streak for ASU.
There was nothing special about how Gonzaga pulled off this win really, was just about balanced play on the court. Getting help from the bench when expected to come in and off rest to starters. Rebounds, ball movement, was truly a very balanced display of basketball.
Transition play happened when called for but never forced or committed to being the style of play.
Winning one-on-one's and boxing out with patient ball handling and passing was enough to hold the Sun Devils under 80 points for the first time this year.
Even though falling short to the Bulldogs, we saw plenty of heart come out for the Sun Devils. Leaving us as fans excited about these games moving forward. Defense did force a season high of 15 turnovers on the Bulldogs as well. ASU could never convert those turnovers into points.
The Sun Devils would find themselves in cold spurts throughout the game as well.
Not being able to make shots, they would end up changing the scheme, focusing on getting to the foul line. They were successful at that but when get to the line to shoot they would never make the shots. Wasted opportunities best describes the game for the Sun Devils