TUCSON - The process was different for the ASU men's basketball team in Sunday's Pac-10 opener. The result didn't change.
For the first time since Eddie House donned the maroon and gold, ASU resembled a legitimate contender in Tucson, but discovered the same misery as previous teams in a 97-79 loss against No. 14 UA before a capacity crowd of 14,546 at McKale Center.
The lopsided defeat, which snapped a nine-game winning streak, doesn't mean ASU (11-2, 0-1 Pac-10) won't compete in a wide-open conference. Then again, it doesn't validate the respect-hungry Sun Devils, either.
Junior forward Ike Diogu kept ASU close well into the second half with energy at both ends of the floor. Back-to-back buckets by sophomore forward Serge Angounou and senior guard Steve Moore trimmed UA's lead to 56-52 with 14:25 left. It looked like ASU had a realistic shot at its first win in Tucson since the 1994-95 season.
That's when UA (11-2, 1-0) started playing like the superior team. Senior center Channing Frye scored a pair of buckets in the post, and then senior guard Salim Stoudamire drilled a three-pointer from the top of the key. ASU pulled within 71-63 with 8:53 remaining on Moore's three-pointer, but UA scored 14 unanswered points over the next three minutes to erase any hopes of a comeback.
"I don't think there's any doubt that we're a good basketball team," ASU head coach Rob Evans said. "This is a tough place to play and a tough environment to play in, and I thought our guys did a pretty good job. They got a little fatigued, and when they did, their concentration level waned a little bit. We took some quick shots, which gave them an opportunity to get their transition game going."
Much-hyped junior guard Hassan Adams (eight points) didn't hurt ASU as much as Frye, Stoudamire and sophomore guard Mustafa Shakur, who combined for 59 points. Frye led the way with 21 points and six rebounds, Shakur posted 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field and Stoudamire had 18 points.
Diogu paced the Sun Devils with his seventh double-double of the season, marking 23 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks in 39 minutes. Sophomore guard Kevin Kruger had 14 points on 3-of-6 shooting from three-point range, Angounou added 12 points and Moore and senior guard Jason Braxton had 10 apiece.
Leading by as many as nine in the first half, ASU reverted to old habits with a slew of costly turnovers and missed free throws. The Sun Devils turned the ball over 19 times and finished 15 for 25 from the line.
"Once again, we let them go on some runs," Braxton said. "They're such a great shooting team that once one of them hit one or two shots in a row, it carried over to everyone. They went on a nice run, and we didn't make free throws, either."
Said Diogu: "We just didn't defend like we normally do, and that was the bottom line. They were really crashing the glass on us, and we didn't do a good job rebounding."
With a trip to the Bay Area on tap for next week, Moore insists that his teammates can't allow the disheartening loss to linger. He's right, considering that ASU is 0-8 on the road against Stanford and California the past four seasons.
"We really wanted to win this, and we really believed that we should have won this game," Moore said. "It's hurts, but it's just one game. We've got to get ready to take care of Cal and Stanford."
Reach the reporter at brian.gomez@asu.edu.
