The philosophy of ASU men's basketball can be summed up easily as living and dying by the 3-pointer.
Saturday, the Sun Devils (12-14, 5-8 Pac-12) survived, topping Stanford 75-69 behind the clutch shooting of senior guard Torian Graham, who sank two shots from behind the arch in the closing minutes.
Graham came into the game off his worst shooting performance of the season Wednesday against Cal, when the streaky guard made just one of 14 shots from the field and totaled a measly two points. He wasn't the only shooter to struggle, as ASU made just three 3-pointers, all coming from junior guard Kodi Justice.
In response, head coach Bobby Hurley said he worked his team ragged in an attempt to put the loss to the Golden Bears in the past and keep attention forward toward the task at hand.
"It was not a practice that most players want to be in with the conditioning that we did and the film study that we did," Hurley said. "It was a tough day for everybody to get that last game out of our system."
It appeared as though the poor shooting was behind ASU in the early goings, as the Sun Devils came out firing in the opening minutes, making four of their first six 3-point attempts and firing at-will.
Despite a much-improved perimeter game for the Sun Devils, they saw Stanford ahead on the scoreboard in the second half, due in part to a staggering rebounding advantage for the visiting Cardinal. Junior forwards Michael Humphrey and Reid Travis picked up 13 and 11 boards respectively, gaining second and even third chances for Stanford.
In a tight game late, Graham went to Hurley and told him to feed him the ball and he would win the game for the Sun Devils. Hurley ran three straight plays for the 6-foot-five sharpshooter, and he made the plays.
.@Torian_Graham was on another level for @SunDevilHoops
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) February 12, 2017
His game-winning trey is the @OpusBank #12Best Moment! https://t.co/9n3L8yMLy6
"I thank my teammates and my coaches for keeping faith in me," Graham said. "Even sometimes more faith than I have in myself."
Stanford coach Jerod Haase was only able to stand by and watch as his team was outscored 15-2 down the final stretch and let the game slip through their fingertips.
"Their guys made more impressive plays and big time plays that our team was not able to make," Haase said. "We made some mental errors, but at the same time you have to give credit to guys that make 25 footers over a hand and they were able to do that."
With the season winding down, Hurley said the Sun Devils are finally playing the way he wants them too, maybe leading to a peak at the right time for the up-and-down squad.
"The guys played like it was the last game of their lives," Hurley said. "They played like they were blessed to have an opportunity to play Division I basketball. Does that mean we weren’t perfect? No. We weren’t perfect but the spirit was there. They believed in themselves and they kept fighting. It was a great, great victory."
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.
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