Arizona State finishes with 4 scholarship players in loss to rival Arizona
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Bobby Hurley might have to start pulling players off the Arizona State football team in order to finish the season.
Already down two starters, Hurley lost senior guard Adam Miller just 28 seconds into Tuesday night's game at rival Arizona. Miller tried to battle through a hip pointer, but looked uncomfortable and was quickly pulled.
Without Miller, Arizona State had just six rotation players remaining — and that included freshman Trevor Best, who enrolled at ASU in late December and had played a total of 61 minutes of college basketball coming into the game.
The Sun Devils hung tough against Arizona, but ran out gas — and players — late in their 112-100 loss. Big men Basheer Jihad and Shawn Phillips Jr. fouled out with less than five minutes left, leaving Hurley with just four scholarship players and three walk ons for the final 3:59 of the game.
It all led to a ridiculous size advantage for Arizona, who outscored ASU 52-30 in the paint. Arizona State stayed in the game behind incredible 3-point shooting — 12-of-23 (52.2%). Alston Mason led the way with 33 points on 5-of-7 from downtown.
The Sun Devils entered the Arizona game already without senior guard BJ Freeman, who was kicked off the team just over a week ago for an accumulation of conduct detrimental to the team. Freeman was ASU's leading scorer at 13.7 points per game.
Five-star freshman Jayden Quaintance, one of the best defensive players in the country and a projected 2026 NBA lottery pick, injured his knee against Kansas State on Feb. 23 and has not played since.
That left Hurley with six scholarship players for most of the game: veterans Jihad, Phillips Jr. and Mason; and true freshmen Joson Sanon, Amier Ali and Best.
Sanon scored 19, Jihad had 15 and Phillips Jr. had 14. But ASU could not stop Arizona, especially in the paint. Henri Veesaar, a 7-foot sophomore, led the Wildcats with a career-high 22 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks.
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-66e6aeb5014b4c4eeac84ca997f034c9.jpg "Ben Sherman")
Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his 27-year journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. A basketball junkie, March Madness is his favorite time of the year.
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