Sun Devil Men's Hoops Notches Another Close Win; Tops Creighton 58-57
Coach Bobby Hurley's Sun Devils have done a great job of coming back from halftime deficits, winning close games and getting quality non-conference road wins.
The Sun Devils hit the trifecta Tuesday night at Creighton (8-3) in a 58-57 win in a place where the home team had won 91 of 98 games against non-conference competition.
The Sun Devils notched their 30th halftime comeback win under Coach Hurley and their 14th on the road -- the best marks in the Pac-12 in his time at ASU -- and earned their 18th win in a game of five points or less in past three seasons, tied for the national lead with Western Kentucky.
Down 32-26 at the half, ASU fell behind 40-32 as Creighton hit its first two three-pointers, but the Sun Devils settled down defensively and held the Bluejays to 21-of-54 (.389) shooting and didn't allow Creighton to make a three-pointer in the final 16 minutes, forcing 10 straight misses.
ASU forced nine Creighton turnovers the first half, but CU went on an 8-2 run to end the half. But after shooting .355 in the first half (11-of-31), ASU shot 14-of-29 (.483) in the second half, outrebounded the Bluejays 18-15 and had just three turnovers.
DJ Horne led ASU with 12 points, while Marreon Jackson added 10 points, five rebounds and four assists. ASU won the battle of bench points 22-8, as Jay Heath added 10 with a season-best seven rebounds.
Up next for the Sun Devils is a contest versus undefeated San Francisco (10-0) on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Desert Financial Arena.
ABOUT THAT SCHEDULE
Tuesday's game was the seventh time in eight games in which the Sun Devils played an NCAA tournament team from last season. ASU has now played at last year's MWC champion (San Diego State), the defending NCAA champ (Baylor), Syracuse (Sweet 16), Loyola (Sweet 16), at Pac-12 champion (Oregon), the WAC champion (GCU) and Creighton (Sweet 16).
ABOUT THOSE OOC ROAD WINS
Bobby Hurley has led ASU to a 9-3 mark in non-conference road games in his seven years, after ASU was 8-22 in its previous thirty games. A crazier stat is that ASU trailed at the half in eight of the wins.
ASU OOC ROAD GAMES UNDER BOBBY HURLEY (9-3)
ASU 58, Creighton 57 (Dec. 14, 2021)
San Diego State 65, ASU 63 (Nov. 18, 2021)
ASU 71, Grand Canyon 70 (Dec. 13, 2020)
ASU 71 San Francisco 67 (Dec. 3, 2019)
ASU 67, Princeton 65 (Nov. 26, 2019)
Vanderbilt 81, ASU 65 (Dec. 17, 2018)
#20 ASU 76, Georgia 74 (Dec. 15, 2018)
#16 ASU 95, #2 Kansas 85 (Dec. 10, 2017)
ASU 74, San Diego State 63 (Dec. 10, 2016)
ASU 66, UNLV 56 (Dec. 16, 2015)
#5 Kentucky 72, ASU 58 (Dec. 5, 2015)
ASU 79, Creighton 77 (Dec. 2, 2015)