Sun Devils Continue Pac-12 Struggles, Lose To Utes
By Johnny Soto
The No. 8 ranked Utes of Utah (14-2) came into Wells Fargo Area to take on the Sun Devils of Arizona State ( 8-9) on Thursday night. The Utes came out victorious and cruised by the Sun Devils by a score of 76- 59.
Coming into the game, some analysis believed that this matchup could turn out to be a trap game for the Utes as the Sun Devils beat them in Tempe last year, 79 – 75.
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Arizona State head coach Herb Sendek also had a career 17 wins against teams ranked in the AP Top 10 in his coaching career heading into Thursday’s contest. His most recent AP Top 10 win was last year on Feb. 14 against number two at the time University of Arizona.
Heading into the game, Utah was riding a six-game winning streak and was perfect in Pac-12 play at 3 -0. The Sun Devils on the other hand, were 0-3 in Pac-12 and were desperate for a win as the team’s last win came against Harvard on Dec. 28.
ASU started off slow in the first half as it took a little over three minutes for the team to get its first basket. Despite having plenty of uncontested shot, the Sun Devils couldn’t knock down a three pointer and started off 0-8 from deep in the first half.
ASU ended the first half going 2-of-10 from three-point land.
However the Devils defense was strong through the first 10 minutes of the game and were only down by one point to the Utes, (13-12) their smallest margin of the game. Shortly after though, Utah went a nine to zero run.
In the second half, Utah simply looked unstoppable on both sides of the floor. On the offensive side of the ball, it seemed that Utah couldn’t miss a shot whether it would be a jumper, free throw or three-pointer. The Utes ended up shooting 54 percent on the night.
In fact, the Utes made four straight three-pointers down the stretch in the second half and ended up scoring 36 points in the second half. Delon Wright lead all scores with 21 points along with six assist and two rebounds. Wright was 12-of-12 from the free-throw line
Gerry Blakes was the top scorer for the Sun Devils with 10 points and Savon Goodman was right behind him with nine points.
ASU will welcome in the Colorado Buffaloes this Saturday as they will look to get their first win in 2015 as well as their first in Pac-12 play.