In the Greek myth of Sisyphus, a king was made to roll an enchanted boulder up a steep hill as punishment for tricking Persephone into allowing him back to the upper world after his death. The boulder was enchanted by Zeus to roll down the hill every time Sisyphus neared the top of the hill, making him re-start his climb.
The ASU men's basketball team faced a similar challenge Saturday afternoon in their futile attempts to climb out of an early hole.
The Sun Devils (11-7, 1-4 Pac-12) came up just short Saturday, falling to Washington 89-85 at Wells Fargo Arena to split the weekend.
From the word go, the Sun Devils fell behind, trailing 9-0 just 110 seconds into the game and looking lost in the process, placing the giant boulder in front of them.
"We didn't start the way you need to start at home," coach Bobby Hurley said. "We dug a hole for ourselves. Our offense wasn't functioning well. We didn't execute."
The Sun Devils roared back, keeping the game tight through the middle portion of the first half relying on the play of their interior players drawing fouls. By the end of the first half, all three of Washington's top post players had three fouls, causing more cautious play by the Huskies, incrementally moving in the right direction.
That foul trouble led to a change of strategy by ASU, according to sophomore guard Kodi Justice.
"We kept running a certain play to try and get out their big because he was playing well and rebounding," Justice said. "We thought that if we could keep running the play and attacking him, maybe we could get him out."
Attacking the post worked out for ASU, as junior forward Malik Dime and freshman forward Marquese Chriss both fouled out of the game. Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, they could not take advantage of the fouls and their trips to the free throw line. Each positive move was met by a negative, keeping ASU just out of reach.
A game after making 28 of 33 shots from the line, the Sun Devils went cold Saturday, hitting just 16 of 29 — 55.2 percent. Making matters worse, ASU entered the game second in the conference in free throw percentage, showing just how off shooters were.
"Sometimes if you're playing well at both ends of the floor, you're in a good state of mind, you feel good about yourself and you go up there and make them," Hurley said. "We weren't playing well, so even when we did get fouled, maybe the guys aren't in a good place mentally, so we're going up there and we're missing the foul shots."
Despite the streaks of poor play and free throw misses, ASU had hope in the waning moments, as the top of the hill seemed within reach with just a little assistance from Washington. But that help would never come.ASU cut its deficit to three or fewer six separate times in the second half, but could not tie the game due to near misses and hot shooting by the Huskies on the other end. Washington made its final four field goal attempts and six free throws to stave off a desperate comeback and leave Tempe with the win.
Hurley simply gave credit to the Huskies for doing their job in the final minute.
"They did have an answer," Hurley said. "They hit the threes."
When Andrews put the final nails in the coffin with two free throws with six seconds left, the boulder rolled down to the bottom of the hill for the final time, sending the Sun Devils home with another heartbreaking loss.
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.
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