Arizona State basketball overcomes foul trouble to slip past Creighton
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The Arizona State men's basketball team has made a habit of gutting out some close wins. They did it again, rallying past Creighton 73-71 Monday night at the Jack Jones Hoopfest at the Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay.
It marked the eighth straight win for ASU (10-1), whose lone loss was to Texas Southern in overtime the third game of the season. The eight in row is the longest win streak since the 12-0 start at the outset of the 2017-2018 season.
ASU is 5-1 in games decided by six points or less with the difference in those games being a combined 15 points.
It was the fifth straight loss for Creighton (6-5), which started the season ranked No. 9 nationally. The losing streak is the school's longest since the 2010-2011 season.
"Throughout the summer I saw it, how competitive our practices were because of our depth. We play 10 guys tonight and they all contributed. That's what our practices have been like top to bottom this year and I saw that we really, as a coaching staff, hit a bullseye in the transfer portal with the guys we brought in. Then you add these guys to what we already have and some exciting freshmen, we felt good about where we were going to be," ASU coach Bobby Hurley said.
Desmond Cambridge and Warren Washington both played the balance of the second half with four fouls while D.J. Horne, Devon Cambridge and Austin Nunez all had three. Desmond picked up his fourth with 10 minutes still left in the contest.
ASU shot 42.2% (27-for-64) with a respectable 11-for-24 from long distance but were only 8-of-15 from the line. The Sun Devils benefited from a 42-35 advantage on the boards and a 23-7 advantage in points from the bench.
Creighton shot 37.1% (23-for-62) with an 11-for-27 from deep and a 14-for-19 from the line. Creighton finished with a 22-16 advantage in points in the paint and a 14-3 cushion in fast-break points.
Creighton played without 7-foot-1 junior center Ryan Kalkenbrenner (15.9 ppg, 7.6 rpg) who was out sick and missed his second straight game.
Key plays
ASU, which had trailed by 10 at 50-40, was clinging to a 70-69 lead with 1:54 to play when Desmond Cambridge hit a jumper for a 3-point lead.
The teams then exchanged misses, before Baylor Scheierman scored inside to make it a one-point game again at 72-21 with 21.6 seconds remaining.
The Sun Devils had trouble inbounding the ball, with Desmond Cambridge taking the pass and getting trapped by two defenders. He finally got the ball off to Frankie Collins who was fouled immediately. Collins, who was just 1-for-12 from the field, made one of just two tries with 12.8 seconds left, leaving the score at 73-71.
The Blue Jays had the last chance to tie or go ahead but a 3-pointer by Ryan Nembhard was off the mark and corralled by Desmond Cambridge.
Standout performers
Desmond Cambridge scored 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field despite being in foul trouble the entire game while D.J. Horne tallied 12 points, all of those in a first half that ended with ASU nursing a 35-29 lead.
Two Sun Devils hit double figures in rebounds with Washington and Devin Cambridge each snagging 10. It was the third time this season Washington recorded 10 or more. Both players added seven points and Washington added two blocked shots. After the game Hurley said Washington had missed the pre-game shootaround with a non-COVID illness so he wasn't full strength.
Nunez came off the bench and contributed 10.
Creighton was led by freshman center Fredrick King with a career-high 16 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots. He was starting in place of Kalkenbrenner for the second straight game. The Blue Jays also got 18 points and eight rebounds from Scheierman.
They said it
"Our defense has been better. To give up 71, that's a lot for what we've been doing at that end of the floor but you have to give Creighton credit, so many ways they can hurt you, so many guys that can shoot the basketball. They're very unique and very difficult team to play." — ASU coach Bobby Hurley
"I was in foul trouble a lot of the game so I was on the bench just watching. You know when you watch games like that, I was just getting fired up. That was just a high octane game so when I come in I want to score the ball and we needed some points. I wanted to be aggressive and my teammates found me. They believed in me, trusted me." — ASU's Desmond Cambridge
"They play with a lot of grit, a lot of determination and they don't quit. They've been behind in a lot of games and come back and won. I thought we had a chance to knock them out but we couldn't quite get it done. " — Creighton coach Greg McDermott, on ASU
Up Next
The Sun Devils have two more games before resuming Pac-12 play. The next will come on Sunday when the Sun Devils play host to University of San Diego (6-5) at 3 p.m. at Desert Financial Arena. The Toreros, coached by Steve Lavin, chalked up an 84-58 win over UC San Diego Monday night.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State basketball overcomes foul trouble to slip past Creighton
