The Blaze

By Josh Green

Greetings, and welcome to Wells Fargo Arena for ASU basketball. Today, the Sun Devils play host to the Richmond Spiders in what is a big non-conference game for ASU.

The Sun Devils are 3-3 on the season, and are coming off a tough 68-54 loss at No. 10 Baylor last Thursday. Meanwhile, the Spiders have a record of 6-2, with one of the six wins coming against then No. 8 Purdue.

You can listen to the ASU-Richmond game live right here on blazeradioonline.com. We’ll have coverage starting at noon, mountain time.

Pregame

Trent Lockett is once again the first player warming up for ASU. Corey Hawkins joined him soon after.

First two songs in the pregame playlist are old school. “Yeah” by Usher, and “Hey Mama” by the Black Eyed Peas.

Keala King and Ruslan Pateev join Hawkins and Lockett on the court, with King wearing his Beats headphones by Dre. Anyone want to buy me a pair of those for Christmas?

Some of the ASU football players are in the student section taking pictures with fans with the Territorial Cup. I’m guessing there will be some ceremony at halftime to honor the team’s win over Arizona.

There is a solid contingent of Richmond fans here. The lower bowl of Wells Fargo Arena has filled out nicely, but still not many students here.

Here are today’s starting lineups:

Richmond: Darien Brothers, Kevin Anderson, Dan Geriot, Francis-Cedric Martel and Justin Harper

ASU: Jamelle McMillan, Ty Abbott, Kyle Cain, Trent Lockett and Rihards Kuksiks

First Half

17:20- Richmond off to an early 8-2 lead, ASU having some problems on the perimeter.

14:13- Herb Sendek calls timeout after a Dan Geriot layups gives the Spiders a 14-6 lead. ASU having a lot of problems guarding Richmond in the paint.

Keala King and Ruslan Pateev come in for Rihards Kuksiks and Kyle Cain.

11:39- At the under-12 timeout, Richmond leads ASU 14-9.

10:54- Richmond is 3-of-5 from three, and leads 17-10.

8:28- Keala King picks up his third foul and will have to sit the rest of the half. He had done a great job being aggressive.

7:54- We’ve reached the under-8 timeout, and Richmond leads 19-15. Trent Lockett have combined to score 11 of ASU’s 15 points, on 5-of-9 shooting.

6:57- Richmond is now 4-of-6 from three and lead 24-17. ASU players not named Ty Abbott or Trent Lockett have combined to shoot 1-of-8 from the floor.

5:41- Herb Sendek takes Kuksiks out of the game after he loses the ball and then commits a silly reach in foul. We’ve seen Sendek do that a lot this year.

5:18- Richmond will be in the penalty for the remainder of half. Ty Abbott hits two free throws to make it a 26-22 game.

4:33- Brandon Dunson checks back in for Carrick Felix. Dunson has gotten some quality minutes here in the first half.

Ty Abbott picks up his third foul and will have to sit the rest of the half. Big loss for ASU as Abbott has seven points.

3:59- Final media timeout of the half, and Richmond leads 27-22.

Justin Harper has 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-3 from three. It says in the game notes he’s an NBA prospect. Hard to argue.

2:35- ASU is 7-of-12 from the free throw line. Richmond leads 27-23 after Kyle Cain hits 1-of-2 from the charity stripe.

0:37- The crowd gets on its feet after Sendek pleas the fans to get into the game. The crowd has been rather lethargic today. Richmond leads 31-25.

Sendek brings Abbott back in the game. Abbott has to be careful not to pick up his fourth foul.

0:07- Kuksiks hits a three to make it a 31-28 game. ASU calls timeout to set up its defense for the final play of the half.

0:00- Richmond fails to score on the final play of the half, and takes a 31-28 lead heading into the locker rooms.

Some first half stats:

ASU shot 32% from the floor, Richmond shot 46.2%. ASU was 9-of-14 from the free throw line.

Trent Lockett, Ty Abbott and Rihards Kuksiks combined for 23 of ASU’s 28 points.

Both teams took good care of the ball. ASU has five turnovers, while Richmond has six.

Second Half

Members of the ASU football team were honored at the half for their win over U of A.

19:09- Jamelle McMillan hits a three pointer to tie the game at 31.

17:28- McMillan converts a three-point play and assists a nice dunk to Ty Abbott. We’re tied at 36.

15:55- First media timeout of the half, and we’re tied at 38. ASU has outscored Richmond 10-5 so far in the half. Sun Devils look a lot more energetic.

11:54- Kuksiks hits his third three of the game to tie it at 41, but Kevin Anderson comes right back for Richmond and hits an NBA range three. Under-12 timeout, and Richmond leads 44-43.

Kuksiks has hit 11 of his last 20 three-pointers.

9:44- Cain hits a pair of layups to give ASU a 47-44 lead, but Francis-Cedric Martel comes back and hits a layup of his own to make it a 47-46 game. We’re in for a good finish.

8:15- Cain gets an nice ovation from the fans as he checks out of the game. He’s scored the last six points for ASU and has eight in the half.

5:55- Under-8 timeout, and we’re tied at 52. Richmond had been on a 6-0 run before Rihards Kuksiks hit his fourth three of the game.

3:03- Richmond is on a 8-1 run and now leads 62-55. Fans starting to file out of Wells Fargo Arena. Might as well since they never made any noise during the game. Kyle Cain has scored nine of the last 12 points for ASU, and now has 14 on the game.

2:28- Crowd on its feet after Trent Lockett hits a pair of free throws to make it a 62-58 game.

1:32- ASU had done a good job containing Justin Harper in the second half, but he hits a layup and then Kevin Anderson hits a free throw to make it a 65-58 game. ASU calls timeout and will have the ball, down 7.

1:18- Ty Abbott has some words for the officials after he gets knocked down after hitting a three. He felt he was fouled, but there was no call. Richmond leads 65-61.

1:00- ASU had a chance to cut the lead, but Ty Abbott missed two three-point attempts. Not sure why he insisted on shooting a three, he didn’t have to.

0:29- Richmond missed a pair of free throws, but Ty Abbott lost the ball out of bounds on the ensuing possession, and the Spiders hit one free throw to go up 66-61. That should do it.

0:00- Richmond beats ASU 67-61 . The Sun Devils fall to 3-4 and have lost three in a row for the first time in over a year.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 5th, 2010 at 10:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.