The Arizona State Sun Devils are finding out just how tough life in the Big 12 can be.
It was another game in which ASU played well in some aspects and not in others as Central Florida turned back the Sun Devils 95-89 Tuesday night at Desert Financial Arena. The game featured 11 ties and nine lead changes. It marked the most points ASU has given up in a game this season, but the 89 points scored was ASU’s second-highest total thus far.
ASU (10-6, 1-4) has dropped four of its five conference games, with this loss coming three days after the Sun Devils lost to No. 25 Baylor in overtime.
The Sun Devils trailed by 12 at 65-53 four minutes into the second half but rallied. They were down by six at 69-63 when Amier Ali hit a 3-pointer to make it 69-66. Ali got a steal seconds later and tossed the ball to Alston Mason who dished it back to Adam Miller, who drained a game-tying three. It was a battle the rest of the way.
UCF later led 87-86 and ASU then had two misses on its next possession. UCF countered at its end with Hall making a shot for a 3-point lead with 1:26 to play. The Knights hung on from there.
What went right
Offense: When you score 89 points you’re usually on the winning end. ASU shot 52.6% (30-for-57) and it was stellar from long distance, making 12 of 24 tries. That shooting percentage was the second-best it has managed this season, the only game in which ASU fared better being a 53.7% in the win over Grand Canyon. B.J. Freeman scored 26 points on an 8-for-12 showing from the field and a 5-for-6 from the line while true freshman Jayden Quaintance scored a career-high 20. Mason and Miller were also in double figures with 15 and 10, respectively.
Good ball movement: The Sun Devils tallied 19 assists on 30 made field goals. Mason and Basheer Jihad each had five assists while Miller had four. The 19 assists was a team-high for the season.
Quaintance continues to improve: Quaintance was 8-for-11 from the field. He also had seven rebounds and five blocked shots. He has been an elite defender from the jump and he now has 49 on the season which ranks third nationally but his offensive game is really evolving.
What went wrong
Keyshawn Hall: UCF’s leading scorer had quite the night, finishing with 40 points. He had 29 in the first half alone, going 11-for-13 from the field, including a 3-for-4 from deep. He went 13-for-18 from the field and 10-for-10 from the line in the contest. He played 32 minutes, missing some time in the second half after he picked up his fourth foul and it was in that stretch that ASU crept back from a 12-point deficit.
“That kid put on a performance. I’ve been doing this here for a while and I’m not sure that I’ve seen a kid play that well against me in one half. Hats off to Hall. He was unbelievable. It was hard to really game plan against what he does. The only thing we could have done better is get back on defense. He gets loos in the open court, a guy that has a game going like that you can’t afford to have breakdowns in transition defense.”
Defense: ASU shot well, but so did the Knights (12-4, 3-2). UCF shot 51% (33-for-65) from the field, which included a 12-for-26 from long distance. The Sun Devils gave up some wide-open looks from the perimeter, a couple of those coming late by J.J. Taylor proving pivotal.
Rebounding: UCF won the boards 36-32. The Sun Devils cut the gap in that department down the stretch because the Knights were leading by a bigger margin most of the game. There were just many times ASU gave up an easy rebound. One such moment came early in the second half. ASU trailed 57-51 and UCF missed a 3-pointer. The ball caromed out and three ASU defenders were there but no one scooped the ball up. Instead, a UCF player got to it and kicked the ball out to Dallan Coleman, who knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 60-51.
Missed free throws: ASU shot 65.4% (17-for-26), which isn’t awful, but the timing of the misses was bad. Plus, they missed the front end of some one-and-one ones. Mason is an 84% shooter from the line and he missed three straight tries, all in the second half. He missed the first two with ASU trailing 65-56. Then moments later he scored on a driving layup to cut the UCF lead to 65-60. He was fouled on the play but missed the free throw that would have further cut into the lead.
Personnel notes
ASU was again down to a seven-man rotation with Joson Sanon missing his third game in the last four with an ankle injury. He missed two games before playing 17 minutes on Saturday against Baylor. He did not suit up in this one . . . Junior guard Austin Nunez is out for the season so the Sun Devils are lacking depth at the guard position.
UCF was without its 7-foot-2 center Moustapha Thaim, who was out with the flu. He played 30 minutes on Saturday at Arizona.
They said it
ASU coach Bobby Hurley
“I knew they were talented. I knew they could score. They had 80 against Arizona and they’ve had other games like this. They can really put points on the board when they get going. It was tough. It’s a hard loss.”
ASU’s Jayden Quaintance on his offensive game
“I’m just trying to trust myself more. Be a little more aggressive. Slowly but surely I’m trying to get better and show off what I can do on offense. I always felt comfortable on the court. I just feel like I’m trying to play a bigger role and have a bigger impact on the game.”
Up next
ASU will be on the road for its next two games, with a game at Cincinnati (10-5, 0-4) on Saturday and one at West Virginia (12-3, 3-1) on Tuesday.
Neither of those teams played Tuesday night. Both are playing road games on Wednesday night.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State basketball can’t keep pace with Central Florida
