Sun Devils stave off Stanford in overtime at Pac-12 Tournament

by Adnan Alam

By GAVIN SCHALL
Cronkite News

LAS VEGAS – Arizona State staved off an end to its season for at least one more day Wednesday, knocking off the Stanford Cardinal 98-88 in overtime in the opening round of the Pac-12 Tournament at T-Mobile Arena.

“It was a gut check game,” said coach Bobby Hurley.

It was just the third Pac-12 Tournament game the Sun Devils have won in the last 16 years, and the Sun Devils dominated in overtime after nearly letting the game slip away.

It also was a game in which the Sun Devils were the best possible version of themselves. Utilizing five perimeter players for most of the game, ASU was nearly flawless offensively until a four-minute scoreless stretch to end regulation.

The Sun Devils overcame a size deficit at nearly every position — and a dominant performance from Stanford’s Reid Travis because of it — by attacking mismatches and Stanford’s scrambling defense with athletic finishes, crisp passes and three-point bombs.

“When we move the ball, it’s really hard to guard us because we have five guys on the court who can do so much at one time,” said junior guard Tra Holder. “So when we share the ball it creates problems for the defense because you never know who’s going to score.”

That wasn’t supposed to be the plan for the Sun Devils this season.

Hurley spent months recruiting Thon Maker hoping he would be his big man, but Maker decided to go to the NBA instead.

No matter. Hurley still had a full rotation of young bigs, at least until highly touted freshman Romello White was declared academically ineligible and fellow first year Vitaliy Shibel tore his ACL.

So Hurley was was left with few options. Play big men who weren’t ready to succeed in the Pac-12 or run his starters ragged, as he did in Tempe against UCLA when they played 219 of 220 possible minutes.

The results were predictable — an average team with a lot of offensive firepower unable to keep up with the size and depth of the top half of the conference unless they leveraged their strengths perfectly.

Against Stanford, the Sun Devils did that.

Forward Obinna Oleka led the Sun Devils, scoring 27 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. It is his 16th double-double of the season, the most by an ASU player in a season since the Sun Devils joined what was then the Pac-10 Conference in 1978.

“He hit the the threes today for us, which is big. He’ll stretch the defense and open up the defense more for the guards,” Hurley said.

Oleka’s shooting also opened up lanes for explosive drives of his own and allowed the Sun Devils to play a true Five Out motion offense, the kind that only works when everyone on the floor is clicking.

That cohesion is sure to be challenged Thursday when Arizona State takes on the top seeded Oregon Ducks, a team that boasts the third-best scoring defense in the conference led by a duo of shot blockers in Chris Boucher and Pac-12 defensive player of the year Jordan Bell.

After finding their offensive rhythm, ASU does not appear to be intimidated by the challenge.

“Just like people don’t want to play them (Oregon), I don’t think people want to play us,” said ASU senior guard Torian Graham.

“They’re beatable,” added Oleka.

To prove it, Arizona State is going to have to embrace what makes them unique.

“We’re not traditional. We’re different, but different in a really good way,” Hurley said.