Pac-12 Basketball Tournament Roundup: Arizona State, Utah, Cal Advance

Alonzo Verge Jr. scored a season-high 26 points, including the go-ahead basket with 11.7 second left, to help eighth-seeded Arizona State knock off ninth-seeded Washington State 64-59 in the first game of the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas Wednesday afternoon.

The Sun Devils (11-13 overall, 8-10 against Pac-12 opponents) trailed 59-58 in the final minute when Verge drove the lane and threw up a 10-foot, off-balance shot amid three defenders that went in with 11.7 seconds left to put ASU ahead by one point.

Washington State's Noah Williams then drove the length of the floor and into the lane before getting the ball stolen by Jaelen House. House was fouled with one second left, and WSU coach Kyle Smith was hit with a technical foul for throwing a water bottle. Verge made both those technical free throws before House made his two foul shots to set the final score.

The Sun Devils did it without their two standout freshmen who are out with injuries -- Marcus Bagley (10.8 points, 6.2 rebounds) and Josh Christopher (14.3 points) -- and little production from All-Conference guard Remy Martin, who scored just six points on 2-for-10 shooting and missed two free throws with 54 seconds left.

After scoring 23 points or more in eight straight games, Martin scored six, eight and six points in his three games since then, going 6-for-26 from the field in that span.

House finished with eight points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals. The Sun Devils were just 2-for-12 from three-point range, but they forced WSU into 20 turnovers and scored 22 points off those turnovers.

Washington State is 14-13 overall, and if the Cougars do not play in the NIT, they will have their first winning season since 2011-12. Isaac Bonton, who had missed four of the previous five games with ankle problems, returned for Wednesday's game and led the Cougars with 19 points.

Arizona State will play top-seeded Oregon in the quarterfinals at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Later Wednesday, Utah will play Washington and Cal will face Stanford.

ASU coach Bobby Hurley discusses the game in his postgame interview:

Utah 98, Washington 95

Utah's offense is heating up at the right time. After falling two points short of 100 points in a 98-59 victory over Arizona State in their final regular-season game, the seventh-seeded Utes nearly reached triple-figures again in a first-round victory over 10th-seeded Washington.

Utah (12-12, 9-11 against Pac-12 foes) made 14 three-point shots (on 26 attempts) and shot 60.4 percent from the field for the game.

"They shot the ball as well as anyone we've seen," Washington coach Mike Hopkins said.

Timmy Allen had 24 points and 11 rebounds for Utah, which controlled the game from the outset before Washington made a late surge.

The Utes took an early 26-10 lead as the Huskies started the game 4-for-17 from the floor. Utah led by 19 points with 5:08 left in the game, but Washington closed to gap to seven points in the final minute. The Huskies had a chance to get within five points, but Utah's Ian Martinez blocked a dunk attempt by Cole Bajema.with 34 seconds left.

Washington did get the margin down to five points with 16 seconds to go, and a three-pointer by Bajema with less than a second left made the final margin three points.

Utah's Alfonso Plummer added 21 points and was 6-for-11 on three-pointers.

Quade Green had a career-high 31 points for the Huskies, who finished with a record of 5-21, including 4-17 against conference opponents. They shot 52.9 percent.

Utah will play No. 2 seed USC in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The Utes beat USC 71-61 on Feb. 27.

Cal 76, Stanford 58

For the second year in a row, Cal upset Stanford in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament. And this time the Golden Bears did it despite the return of Stanford star Oscar da Silva.

Matt Bradley scored 19 points, going 3-of-4 three-point shots, to lead 11th-seeded Cal to a win that ended whatever hope sixth-seeded Stanford had of landing an NCAA tournament berth.

Cal, which lost both regular-season games to Stanford and finished last in the Pac-12 standings, improved to 9-19 overall and 4-17 against conference opponents.Stanford is 14-13 and 10-11 against conference foes as it lost its fifth straight game.

Cal will play third-seeded Colorado in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Da Silva, who scored 24 and 23 points in the Cardinal’s two regular-season wins over the Bears, finished with 12 points on 4-for-12 shooting. He had missed the previous three games with a knee injury.

Cal shot 52.9 percent for the game and made 9-of-17 three-point shots..

Cover photo of Arizona State-Washington State game by Stephen Sylvanie, USA TODAY Sports

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

Find Cal Sports Report on Facebook by searching: @si.calsportsreport or going to https://www.facebook.com/si.calsportsreport

Add us as a preferred source on Google