Arizona clinches tie for Pac12 title in Miller’s return
TEMPE — Arizona State’s Pac-12 season has been filled with games decided by single digits, many going all the way down to the wire.
The Sun Devils finally got a blowout and, boy, did it feel good.
Revving up its highlightreel, crowd-pleasing offense, Arizona State ran away from California with a huge second half to beat the Bears 84-53 Thursday night.
“It felt great to just go out there and be ourselves,” said Arizona State’s Remi Martin, who had at least three no-look passes among his six assists. “That’s the type of basketball Sun Devil basketball plays. We go out there and we play freely and we just make plays.”
In Arizona State’s first 16 Pac-12 games, 14 were decided by single digits, matching Oregon in 200607 for most in the past 22 years.
The Sun Devils (20-9, 8-9 Pac-12) gradually built a 10-point lead by halftime, giving the struggling Bears hope of mounting a comeback. Arizona State squashed it early in the second half, reeling off series of dunks and layups to end a three-game losing streak.
Romello White had 13 points and 11 rebounds for Arizona State. Shannon Evans II added 14 points and Tra Holder 13.
“It was good to get back to playing freely,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said. “Some of the plays in the second half were who we are and who we’ve been most of the year.”
Cal had no answer for Arizona State at either end.
The Sun Devils picked their way through Cal’s defense, shooting 51 percent and making 15 of 27 shots in the second half. The Bears stuck to the perimeter on offense most of the night and it did not turn out well.
Cal (8-22, 2-15) missed all of its 18 shots from the 3-point arc and set a dubious record, notching the most losses in the 111 seasons as a program.
Don Coleman had 16 points to lead the Bears, who had 17 turnovers and just six assists.
“We didn’t really get any penetration,” said Cal coach Wyking Jones. “I felt like everything we did was perimeter based. The times we did get into the lane, it just didn’t feel like we were able to capitalize.”
Arizona State still has a solid NCAA Tournament resume thanks to a strong nonconference season. But the margin for error has slimmed up over the past two weeks with losses to No. 19 Arizona, Oregon and Oregon State.
The Sun Devils certainly couldn’t afford a loss to the struggling Bears, who have the Pac-12’s worst offense and defense.
Arizona State won the first meeting against Cal 81-73 in Berkeley behind a 41-point night by its bench.
The Bears struggled offensively early in the rematch, hit a hot stretch midway through and struggled again to close the first half. Cal missed all 10 of its 3-point shots and Arizona State led 39-29 at halftime.
Arizona State got the rout rolling early second half, making six of its first nine shots to stretch the lead to 51-33. Cal missed four of its first six shots with turnovers in that stretch.
The Sun Devils kept on the gas, pushing the lead to 70-49 on a series a highlightreel layups .
“Obviously, they’re at home, they’re in their comfort zone and once they kind of got it going, it was an uphill battle for us,” Jones said.
BIG PICTURE
Cal’s first season under Jones has been historically ugly and the Bears didn’t stand much of a chance when the Sun Devils revved up. The Bears moved a step closer to being the No. 12 seed in next week’s Pac-12 tournament
Arizona State dominated at both ends to win a game it couldn’t afford to lose, pushing the Sun Devils further away from the NCAA Tournament bubble.
CAL’S SHOOTING
Cal is the Pac-12’s worstshooting team from 3-point range, averaging 30 percent from the arc on the season. The 0-fer against Arizona State wasn’t not the Bears’ first of the season, either. Cal went 0 for 8 in a loss to Portland State on Dec. 21.
The Bears also had a huge discrepancy in free throws, going 11 for 17 while Arizona State was 28 for 37.
“We just weren’t aggressive enough to get to the free throw line and they were,” Jones said.
UP NEXT
Cal plays at No. 19 Arizona on Saturday.
Arizona State hosts Stanford Saturday.
TUCSON — With coach Sean Miller back on the job and Allonzo Trier reinstated, No. 19 Arizona clinched at least a share of the Pac12 title with a 75-67 victory over Stanford on Thursday night.
Dusan Ristic scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half. Ristic, a senior, set a school record by participating in his 111th victory. Trier, reinstated by the NCAA after a two-game suspension, added 18 points for the Wildcats (23-7, 13-4 Pac-12) and Deandre Ayton, the freshman who leads the Pac-12 in scoring and rebounding, had 12 points and 10 boards.
Arizona has won or shared the conference regular season title five times since 2010-11 and beat Stanford for the 17th straight time. The Wildcats can clinch the title outright by beating California on Saturday night or if USC loses to UCLA.
Arizona clinched the No. 1 seed in next week’s conference tournament because the Wildcats beat USC in their only meeting this season.
Reid Travis scored 23 points for the Cardinal. The loss for Stanford (16-14, 10-7) was a blow to the Cardinal’s hopes for a top-four finish in the conference and a first-round bye next week.
Miller returned after a one-game absence, getting a loud welcome from the McKale Center throng as he entered the arena, waving to the fans as his players smiled and clapped.
Earlier in the day, Miller read a statement to reporters vehemently denying he had approved payment to Ayton, or any player, in his time at Arizona. The university’s president said an examination of the facts found no evidence of Miller wrongdoing and the school was standing by its coach.
ESPN said it is standing by its report that a wiretap shows Miller talking about a $100,000 payoff to Ayton. Ayton has denied that anything was given to him to attend Arizona.
Ristic scored nine in a 16-3 run that put the Wildcats up 35-23 on Trier’s 12-footer in the lane with 2:02 to play in the half. Arizona led 37-28 at the half behind Ristic’s7-of-8 shooting.
Miller called time out after Stanford’s Oscar Da Silva was alone inside for a dunk that gave the Cardinal their last lead, 20-19, with 9:58 left in the first half. Arizona clamped down its defense and Stanford scored just three points in the next 7 1/2 minutes.
The decisive run came with Ayton on the bench with two fouls. Ayton, who fouled out in Arizona’s 7573 win at Stanford on Jan. 20, sat out 8 minutes of the first half.
The Cardinal kept the deficit to single digits most of the second half and were down 69-64 after Daejon Davis’ dunk with 1:04 to play. Trier made four from the line and Ayton two to finally put the game away. BIG PICTURE Stanford probably needs to win the conference tournament to make the NCAA field but still has a shot at a top four finish in the conference with a victory at Arizona State on Saturday.
McKale was rocking and the emotion of Miller’s return — as well as Trier’s — carried the team to its early lead. The Wildcats will be heavily favored to clinch the conference title outright against last-place California on Saturday night.
TRIER BACK
About 2 hours before tipoff, Arizona announced the NCAA had cleared Trier to return to the team.
He missed games at Oregon State and Oregon last weekend after testing positive for what the university described as a “miniscule” amount of the banned substance that had led to his 19-game suspension last season. Trier said he unknowingly ingested the substance a year ago.
The university had argued that the positive test was the result of a remnant of what Trier had taken last year.
Trier entered the game tied for second in the Pac-12 in scoring at 19.6 points per game.
UP NEXT
Stanford: at Arizona State on Saturday night.
Arizona: hosts California on Saturday.