Arizona State men snap 4 -game losing streak, turn back Oregon State

A return home was just what the struggling Arizona State men's basketball team needed.

The Sun Devils used a stellar second half and surged past visiting Oregon State 68-57 Thursday night at Desert Financial Arena. The victory snapped a four-game losing streak as the Sun Devils had come in after back-to-back home losses to the Los Angeles schools, followed by road loss to Washington and Washington State, the first of those coming in overtime.

The last win for ASU (16-7, 7-5) before this came against the same opponent as ASU defeated the Beavers 73-69 in Corvallis on Jan 14.

ASU shot 46.8% (22-for-47) from the field which included a 7-for-18 from deep. More importantly, the Sun Devils tallied 18 assists on 22 field goals, finished with a 17-6 advantage in points off turnovers and a 17-3 margin in fast break points.

Oregon State (9-14, 3-9) shot 40.8% (20-for-49) but was only 8-for-26 (31%) in the second half. The Beavers made only 2 of 11 3-point tries in the second half after going 12-for-23 from deep in the first half

"I think we took a step in the right direction today," ASU coach Bobby Hurley said. "I was excited about how we defended, especially in the second half and held them to 22 points and did a good job at that end of the floor. Happy with our bench. There is a lot of things they did that don't even show up on a stat sheet."

Guard D.J Horne returned to the lineup and was back in his customary starting spot. He was suspended from the last game at Washington State for what was deemed conduct detrimental to the team for an outburst after the loss at Washington. He had five points, two rebounds and two assists in 31 minutes.

Turning point

ASU led by just four points at 58-54 with six minutes left. Then Desmond Cambridge Jr. nailed a 3-pointer to give the Sun Devils a seven-point lead for 61-54 which tied their largest lead of the game to that point.

The host team later led 63-56 and the score stayed that way for nearly three minutes with the teams exchanging turnovers and misses. The Beavers didn't score again until 1:20 remained in the game and at that point ASU was up 65-56.

In that stretch ASU forced three turnovers and did not give up an offensive rebound.

Standout performers

Desmond Cambridge Jr. led all scorers with 18 points, 16 of those coming in the second half after he had only two shots from the field in the first. He also had five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Brother Devan Cambridge added 14 points on an efficient 5-for-7 showing from the field and a 4-for-6 effort from the line. The Sun Devils are now 11-0 when he scores in double digits. The Auburn transfer also had six rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Point guard Frankie Collins was the third ASU player in double figures with 13 points, along with a team-high four assists.

Freshman Jordan Pope led the Beavers with 14 points but was held to just two points in the second half. That came after he made three 3-pointers in the first half. Tyler Bilodeau had 10 while K.C. Ibekwe came off the bench and had nine points and seven rebounds in 12 minutes.

They said it

"Unless you’ve played at our level and experienced what it feels like to go through a tough stretch and lose a few games, no matter what you say and do in practice or what the players do in practice there is inherently a loss in confidence. Tonight was a reintroduction to winning and knowing how to win and close an opponent out. I’m hoping that there’s going to be a carryover effect now that we can all breathe. Because I’ve been through it as a player and I know it as a coach and a player. You lose these games, some heartbreaking, some not. You lose four in a row and feel like, “are we ever going to win a game again?” No matter how good of a season you’ve had. Happy for the guys, feel good for them because they've had a great season and they could get this out of their system and get back on the winning track.” - ASU coach Bobby Hurley on snapping losing streak“

"We definitely went through some growing pains. Four losses back-to-back, that’s hard mentally on us. Just to stay consistent in practice, keep a good energy, good attitude. But we figured it out, we just kept sticking to it and we didn’t change anything. We did get closer as a team, we are holding each other accountable, being able to take constructive criticism from each other and I think we grew in that. Because this game, it wasn’t easy and we have mistakes all around and we figured out how to get the win.” - Desmond Cambridge Jr. on enduring the losing streak

“I have one-on-ones and stuff like that you know everybody has their own problems personally like it could be school or anything. So I try to connect with everybody to see what they’re going through, especially with me and my brother like he says the things people are scared to say like get on somebody and be that leader. That’s what we needed, some young guys not having won much, I’ve been part of winning programs. I just try to have my voice in there, I feel like everybody listened. We had a couple of meetings, like five meetings for those four games, I feel like everybody listened and locked in. Players, coaches, starters, we had all different types of meetings.” - Devan Cambridge on being a leader in tough times

Up Next

The Sun Devils remain at home for an 8 p.m. game on Saturday against Oregon (13-10, 7-5), whom they defeated 90-73 last month in Eugene. Oregon is coming off a 91-76 loss to Arizona Thursday at the McKale Center.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State men snap 4 -game losing streak, turn back Oregon State