Bobby Hurley, arms out, palms up, face full of emotion.

A tale as old as time for Arizona State men's basketball, but just a little different this go-around.

ASU’s pair of senior guards got together for an alley oop jam with 10:31 to go in the second half, as Moe Odum threw it up for Anthony “Pig” Johnson to throw it down, giving the Sun Devils a 10-point lead and setting off an already ignited crowd decked out in neon green and pink.

Hurley, who has been critical of ASU’s lack of crowd noise and participation for the majority of the year, turned his back to the court, and with a grin you could see from the nose bleeds, moved his arms up and down to keep the Sun Devil faithful in the game.

“It was an electric atmosphere,” Hurley said, “and I think our guys fed off of it.”

That atmosphere proved to be the missing piece to ASU’s winning equation, as crowd noise, scrappy defense, and pure grit when it mattered most propelled the Sun Devils (14-12, 5-8 Big 12) to a 72-67 win over No. 13 Texas Tech (19-7, 9-4 Big 12) at Desert Financial Arena on Tuesday Feb. 17.

Keeping the Red Raiders off the scoreboard is a challenge that most teams try and fail at, but with a week since its last game, ASU was able to dissect Texas Tech's offense in more ways than one.

The Sun Devils were able to limit the Red Raiders' bread and butter: the pick-and-roll, by cutting off penetration and fighting through the pick to stay with their original defensive assignment.

This strategy, along with a healthy dose of full-court press, created 17 turnovers for ASU, a staggering amount against Texas Tech, who excel at keeping the ball out of harm's way, only averaging 10.5 turnovers a game for the season.

“Their actions are very simple,” Hurley said, “they just try to create a lot of miscommunication.”

Red Raiders junior forward JT Toppin usually makes a major impact through those pick-and-rolls, but was only a limited factor in the contest, finishing with 20 points in 32 minutes after leaving with what appeared to be a serious knee injury in the second half. 

Defense only tells so much of the story, though, as Odum and Johnson combined for 33 points while trading clutch buckets with one another down the stretch.

It wasn’t just the guard duo, however, as freshman center Massamba Diop had 14 points, including a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining in the first half to give ASU a 37-36 advantage at the break.

“I knew it was good,” Odum said, “he’d been working on that shot every day.”

Diop’s presence, offensively paired with a few big shots from sophomore guard Noah Meeusen, proved to be huge down the stretch, as the Sun Devils needed every point they could find against such a dangerous team.

While Texas Tech made a late run to cut the lead to two points with less than a minute to go, not having Toppin on the floor was clearly a big hole the Red Raiders could not patch in time.

Sophomore guard Christian Anderson stepped up in a big way, becoming the primary scorer as well as facilitator without Toppin, but lost control of the ball on Texas Tech's final possession to seal his team's fate. 

For ASU, this game meant a lot more than just a conference win against a good team; it was about putting the haunting memories of blown leads and opportunities in the past, and proving that it was better than its record indicates. 

After all, fans saw a very similar story unfold against Arizona earlier this season, as a halftime lead turned into a heartbreaking loss, a story that wasn’t even close to the first time the Sun Devils had experienced that this season.

From the party that was hundreds of fans storming the court to the hugs and congratulatory yells in the tunnel, the postgame was not only a celebration, but it was also a relief of sorts.

That being the case, though, ASU knows it needs to refocus and not get too high on one victory, as it is still way outside any NCAA Tournament hopes, and would need to go on an all-time run to get to its main goal.

“The goal is the goal, tournament,” Odum said. “We gotta take care of business the rest of the way.”

The Sun Devils look to handle business in Waco, Texas, on Saturday, Feb. 21, at 2 p.m. MST as they visit Baylor in another Big 12 showdown.

In what started out as a quiet 9 p.m. MST tip-off in Tempe, the crowd realized quickly what type of game they were witnessing, and did everything it could to propel ASU to a historic win.

Between an oh-so-close 360 alley oop dunk, to multiple plays that looked like they came off the football field, this game had it all, which seems to be a common theme when these two schools get together in different sports this season.

Even after all of that, however, Hurley sat in the media room, arms out, palms up, full of emotion.

One final time for the evening, though, that emotion was hope, gratitude and pride in his team.

“You need to have guys like I have,” Hurley said. “When you have guys that fight and battle like that, there’s gonna be a level of confidence on my end, too.”