House, Verge break out big in ASU win

Jaelen House and Alonzo Verge Jr., were doing everything pretty well in the first 12 games this season, aside from making 3-pointers.

On Saturday, both got hot from behind the arc, helping Arizona State close the non-conference part of its schedule with a 98-81 win over Texas Southern at Desert Financial Arena.

House, a freshman from Phoenix Shadow Mountain, came into the game making 8 of 31 3-pointers. Verge, a junior-college transfer, was only 5 of 30 from beyond the arc.

Nobody would have known that the way they knocked down shots on Saturday.

House was 5-for-7 shooting 3s and finished with 20 points. Verge made both of his 3-point attempts and had 23 points, hitting 10 of 13 field goals.

The hot shooting by the Sun Devils (9-4), who made their first 11 shots and were 36-for-63 for the game, including 12-for-25 on 3-pointers, offset the loss of 6-foot-8 junior Romello White eight minutes into the game.

White lay on the floor in pain, before being helped off and into the locker room, sustaining an apparent ankle injury.

“It’s a little early,” coach Bobby Hurley said about White’s status. “I’m going to see how he looks the next couple of days before I have any type of update on Mello.”

Mikey Mitchell, a 6-7 senior, moved to center with White out, and helped the Sun Devils, mainly with his hustle, keep Texas Southern (3-9) from taking control of the paint. ASU outscored the Tigers 48-30 in the paint.

This was only Mitchell’s fifth game this season. He had played a total of 21 minutes prior to Saturday, when he logged 26 minutes. He had four points and four rebounds.

“It felt good,” Mitchell said. “It’s been a long time, working back to get to this point. Regardless of how my offense is going, I try to bring my intensity, because that is something I can control. I can’t control every single shot. But I can control how hard I play and how hard I try to get others to play. I try to be contagious with energy.”

It worked.

ASU was hot from outside, opening up the middle.

Verge was able to create in the lane for most of his baskets. And point guard Remy Martin was a menace at both ends of the court. He had 23 points, making 8 of 13 shots, and added five rebounds, five assists and two steals.

“I felt going into Virginia and the East Coast swing that (Verge) was playing really good,” Hurley said. “I thought he would have a breakout on that trip. He missed those games. I think he was pressing a little bit and trying to find his niche in the offense.”

It was a brilliant no-look pass to Kimani Lawrence midway through the second half for a layup that really impressed Hurley.

“He’s comfortably getting to his spots, and is vision was really good, and his pass to Kimani was outstanding,” Hurley said. “I thought we played pretty good team basketball. We moved it. Nineteen assists is a good total.”

Hurley figured House’s shot would come along.

“I know he was so much better than how he was playing on offense,” Hurley said. “He gives you a lot of energy defensively. But, it’s great for his confidence and how feels about himself to make some of those shots.

“If you look at how he took those 3s, there might have been three or four that were a little ill-advised, but most of them came off somebody hitting the paint and kicking out or were going inside out.”

House didn’t force things for the most part, letting the shots come to him.

“I was taking high-quality shots,” House said. “I didn’t want to force anything. Every time I made a shot it was on ball movement. I felt pretty good.”

Guard John Jones led Southern Texas with 27 points.