Devils Cannot Overcome Sluggish First Half

When you’re a young team as the Arizona State University Sun Devils are, more often than not you will go as far as your true freshmen will take you. That may be an unfair burden to put on players such as Christian Polk and Jerren Shipp, but their cold outside shooting was a major factor is ASU’s d76-58 defeat to Xavier on the road.

The aforementioned tandem was a combined 2-15 from the field and contributed just six points. Serge Angounou matched a career-high 23 points and added seven rebounds as Arizona State fell to 4-4 on the season. Antwi Atuahene had 15 points and paced all players on the floor with seven assists. Jeff Pendergraph was the only other Sun Devil in double-digit scoring with ten. The maroon and gold were a frigid 35.8% from the field and lost the rebound battle 33-29. Xavier (8-3) was led by Justin Doellman’s 19 points.

For the first nine minutes of the game, the visitors from Tempe stood toe-to-toe with their hosts, and at the 11:39 mark of the first half were tied at 14-14. The Musketeers held the Devils for 12 points the rest of the first period, while scoring 24 points themselves, and jumped out to a lead they would never relinquish on Saturday evening.

ASU tried to mount a comeback in the second half, and were able to bring down their deficit to five points, 61-56, with just over six minutes remaining in the contest. Alas, the Devils’ offensive struggles revealed their ugly head once again, as Xavier rips a 15-2 run to seal the deal and send the visitors to their second consecutive road loss.

The maroon and gold return to Tempe to host Colgate on December 19th at 7 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena.