Sun Devils fall in Pac-12 Tournament
PDF GAME BOOK: OREGON 91 ASU 73 (MAR. 11 2021) | PDF: Final 2020-21 Sun Devil Men's Basketball Statistics | PDF: Every Sun Devil Box Score in 2020-21 | Sun Devil Men's Basketball Career Records | Boxscore
LAS VEGAS – Despite Alonzo Verge Jr. posting a season high in scoring for the second time in as many days, the Sun Devil men's basketball team (No. 8 seed) was not able to extend its season, falling to the top seed Oregon 91-73 in the quarterfinal round of the Pac-12 Tournament.
After scoring 19 of his 26 points in the second half of ASU's 64-59 win over Washington State in Wednesday's first round game, Verge put up a game-high 28 points vs. Oregon. The senior guard just missed a double-double with a game-high eight rebounds to go with four assists.
Senior guard Remy Martin scored all 16 of his points in the second half and also led the team with five assists to go with four rebounds. Combined with Verge's 19 points, Martin and Verge combined to score 35 of ASU's 46 points over the last 20 minutes.
Jaelen House scored six points and had three steals for the Sun Devils (11-14), who shot 44 percent.
Oregon (20-5) connected on 59 percent of its shots. The Ducks' efficiency from the floor improved as the game progressed.
Trailing by eight points to start the second half, the Sun Devils got as close as six after Holland Woods' 3-pointer cut Oregon's lead to 41-35 with 15:21 remaining.
The Ducks, who shot 66 percent in the second half, answered with nine straight points to swell their lead to 15 points and led by double digits the rest of the way.
ASU had been to four NCAA Tournaments (1995, 2003, 2009 and 2014) in 26 seasons (1992-2017) and had not been back-to-back since 1980-81. Martin and Kimani Lawrence went to the Dance in each of their first two seasons (2018 and 2019) and were on way to a third last year, which would have been ASU's first three-year NCAA streak since the early 1960s.
Coming into the 2020-21 season, ASU had two of the top returning scorers in the Pac-12 in Martin and Verge and signed top-30 players (Josh Christopher and Marcus Bagley). Unfortunately, between Covid-19 and injuries, the four players competed in just seven games together and in just five since Nov. 27.
BOBBY HURLEY QUOTES
"It was a tough scene in the locker room as it generally is when guys invest and put their heart and soul into this, certainly the group on the floor has done that all year against a lot of adverse conditions. It was very emotional in the locker room, saying goodbye to a couple seniors that have meant so much to me like Remy Martin, it feels like yesterday he was stealing the ball against Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas and laying it in and I won't have an opportunity to coach him again so the reality of that was tough. Alonzo Verge had some outstanding things to say for some of the younger players in the program, he had tremendous words. There's been some very good moments, it's been a tough year and just a lot of things thrown at us all year. I have tremendous respect for the entire group that we stayed together, what these kids have gone through, all the procedures they go through every day, the protocols, mess, and testing and we've gotten through the season and it's always sad when it ends but when there are people that you have such a bond and connection with it makes it more difficult to know that it's over."
ON OREGON PULLING AWAY IN FIRST HALF
"I think we had some offensive possession where we had some decent looks, I remember one Holland had on the right wing, I'm sure I'm missing the others, but I think the ball was sticking too much offensively in the first half and they were able to load their defense. We didn't effectively attack their switches; they were switching just about everything. The offensive end did not flow great, but I thought we had a chance in the second half, we talked in the locker room about going down seven to Washington State to start the second half and we were down eight at the half, so we have a few more minutes to get that lead back; it just wasn't meant to be. When Kimani went down it was such a terrible moment to see a guy that really cares so much about this team and teammates and has turned his season around and invest so much to try and see Arizona State win basketball games, to see him get injured was very upsetting and at that moment we effectively had a very little chance to win that game. The four guards emptied the tank out there, they ran around and chased Oregon. We hit some threes to try and keep it to 12 or 14 but we could never breakthrough and get it to single digits."
ON REMY'S AGGRESSIVENESS
"I think the defenses understand his value to what we're doing, and they load their defense to him quite a bit, he had Noah Williams hounding him yesterday, good size and one of the better defensive guards in the conference and getting clear shots was not easy. We drew up the play we ran against Grand Canyon and got a corner three in the right corner but didn't go down, I would've liked to have seen that happen for him, that could've jumped started him sooner in the second half."
ON JALEN GRAHAM'S TECHNICAL AND PERFORMANCE
"I think it was properly officiated and that was a very physical moment where two guys were entangled and neither one of them wanted to give up the basketball and we had possession at the time, but Jalen maybe lost his cool for a second but not only cost us free throws but getting another foul and we cannot afford to not have him on the court."