By Jordan Hamm
After coming off what is considered their most complete win against Long Beach State, the Arizona State Men’s Basketball team struggled mightily against North Carolina A&T on Wednesday.
After opening up a 20-13 lead, the Sun Devil shooters were ice cold, allowing the Aggies to go on a 16-3 run and lead the game going into halftime 29-23. NC A&T guard Nic Simpson had 14 points in the first half. The Sun Devils focused defensively on Aggies center Thomas Coleman, the Aggies leading scorer and rebounder. That made it possible for Simpson to hit some threes as well as slash to the basket and create some opportunities in the paint.
The turn in the game came when freshman Chanse Creekmur was able to draw two over the back fouls on Coleman, giving the Aggies center four fouls with fifteen minutes left to play. Coleman sat for five minutes, and had to play much more conservative defense so he would not draw that deadly fifth foul, which would cause him to foul out.
“He’s a big guy, so I just tried to box him out best I could and go for the ball”, Creekmur said.
With Coleman trying to avoid that fifth foul, the Sun Devils second squad was able to attack Coleman and get some points in the paint. Keala King and Carrick Felix both were able to get some points in the post and begin to lead the comeback.
The Sun Devils have focused on their returning leadership this year, being there are seven newcomers this season. It was actually the newcomers in this game that brought back the Devils.
“Coach was mad at us (the starters), and pulled us out of there and put the second squad in, and they brought us back in the game,” senior forward Rihards Kuksiks said.
After the second squad brought the Devils to within four points, the starters came back in and went on a 10-0 run to finish the game with the final score of 56-50. The run was highlighted by an alley-oop from Ty Abbott to Trent Lockett.
Kuksiks led the Sun Devils in scoring with 15 points.
Despite only three points in the second half, Aggies guard Nic Simpson led all scorers with 17 points.
The Sun Devils open Pac-10 play in Corvallis, Ore. against the Oregon State Beavers December 30.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 at 9:51 pm 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.
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