The Arizona State Sun Devils got back in the winning column Saturday afternoon, beating Gardner-Webb 71-48 in front of a half empty Wells Fargo Arena.
The win ended a three-game losing streak for ASU, its longest since the 2008 season.
Ty Abbott had 18 points, Trent Lockett chipped in 16 and Rihards Kuksiks added 15 for the Sun Devils, who improved to 4-4 on the young season.
While the game may look like it was a blowout on paper, ASU didn’t pull away from Gardner-Webb until the final seven minutes, thanks to a 10-2 run led by three’s from Abbott and Kuksiks.
The Runnin’ Bulldogs had opportunities to make it much closer, but failed to make easy baskets, partly due to the Sun Devil defense, which Abbott and Kuksiks said the team put emphasis on this past week in practice.
Gardner-Webb shot just 30% overall from the floor and was held to a season-low 48 points. ASU’s defense also forced 17 turnovers.
“Our guys really gave a good effort on defense,” coach Herb Sendek said. “We were really concerned about Gardner-Webb’s potency on offense. Our guys, by in large, did a great job, not that we don’t have to continue to get a lot better as well.”
The Sun Devils were coming off losses against St. John’s, Baylor and Richmond.
The out of conference schedule continues this Friday, when ASU will travel to Reno to take on Nevada. This will be the third out of conference road game this season for the Sun Devils, who opened up the year in The Pit against New Mexico and played at No. 10 Baylor on December 2nd, losing both games. This game should be the easiest of the three, as Nevada has lost seven of its first nine games.
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- Through the first four games of the season, Kuksiks shot 8-of-30 (26%) from three-point range. In the last four games he’s gone 13-of-24 (54%) from three. Sendek attributed Kuksiks’ slow start to the fact that he missed a good portion of the preseason with an ankle injury. Kuksiks said he’s finally starting to feel comfortable on the court.
- Freshman Jordan Bachynski played in the final three minutes. He sat out last week against Richmond with an ankle sprain and didn’t practice much this week, but look for him to work his way back into the rotation.
- Kyle Cain scored eight points and grabbed 11 rebounds. The freshman is averaging 9 points and 6.5 rebounds through the first eight games.
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