Pair of Pac-12 Games Up Next For Men's Hoops After Loyola Loss

The Sun Devil men's basketball team will now get ready for the first two of 20 Pac-12 games after falling to Loyola 77-59 Friday in the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Jay Heath had a season-high 16 points off the bench and appears to be shaking off missing time early in the year due to COVID protocols (first two games) while DJ Horne added 11. Enoch Boakye added nine points off the bench.

Loyola shot 50 percent from the field (26-of-52) and 12-of-26 (.462) from the three-point line and led 39-33 at the half. ASU didn't shoot it well from three (3-of-11) and was outrebounded 33-24 in the loss.

ASU now opens Pac-12 play hosting Washington State (5-0) Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. before traveling to Oregon for a Sunday (Dec. 5) tip at 4 p.m. Both games are on the Pac-12 Network.
 
By playing Baylor, Syracuse and Loyola in the Battle 4 Atlantis, ASU is in a nine-game stretch where it is playing seven 2021 NCAA Tournament teams, with the outliers being Washington State on Dec. 1 (5-0) and San Francisco (7-0) on Dec. 19.

"You can't afford to have stretches like we did in these games," Bobby Hurley said. "We had a decent finish to the first half, but then we stopped making shots. And we got back to where we've been living here – down 12, down 14, down 16 – and we're trying to climb back into it.
 
"There were too many breakdowns on defense that you can't afford to have, with guys shooting wide-open 3s. So it was not a good performance defensively."

A SOLID DJ
DJ Horne hit a career-high six threes in the Nov. 24 Baylor game and is 20-of-41 (.487) from three on the year and .424 (128-of-302) in his three-year career. He averaged 15.1 ppg. last year at Illinois State and also is a .831 career free throw shooter (64-of-77).