EUGENE, Ore. -- The path had been cleared. The hole had been dug. The casket and tombstone were sitting nearby.
The ASU men's basketball team was about to be buried in the cemetery across the street from McArthur Court.
Shocking everyone but its own players and coaches, ASU showed more than a few signs of life Saturday night in a 64-51 win over Oregon that restored hope for an NCAA Tournament berth.
The improbable victory propelled ASU (14-5, 3-4 Pac-10) into a four-way tie for fourth place in the Pac-10 with Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State. A loss would have dropped ASU to ninth place.
For the first time this season, ASU won without receiving a monster performance from junior forward Ike Diogu, who was held to 10 points, his lowest scoring output since the first game of his freshman year.
Sophomore forward Serge Angounou was the only other Sun Devil to score in double figures, totaling a game-high 20 points and 10 rebounds on
7-of-11 shooting from the field. Sophomore swingman Bryson Krueger had nine points and sophomore guard Kevin Kruger and junior guard Tyrone Jackson had eight apiece.
Better yet, ASU did it with defense, holding Oregon (11-5, 3-4) to 28.6 percent shooting from the field after allowing its last three opponents to shoot 45.7 percent. The 51 points Oregon scored were the second-fewest ASU had relinquished this season.
"Every game, there is a sense of urgency in this league," said ASU coach Rob Evans, whose team shot just 36.5 percent from the field against Oregon's fast-shifting zone. "Every game you play is a difficult assignment. It will be a sense of urgency Thursday. It will be a sense of urgency Sunday. And it will be a sense of urgency March 1."
The Sun Devils never allowed Oregon to pull closer than 10 points after grabbing a 38-25 lead less than five minutes into the second half. ASU got three-pointers from Kruger and Krueger midway through the half, and Angounou drained a baseline jumper and scored on a layup after a Diogu block.
Oregon helped ASU's cause by shooting 4 for 34 from three-point range, including a 2-for-23 effort after the break. It didn't matter whether ASU played zone or went with a man-to-man front. The Ducks couldn't hit anything.
"We went back to some of our basics on defense," Krueger said. "We were pumped up for the game because we had our back against the wall. We wanted to stay in the race, and in order to do that, we had to get this win."
Held to just six points at halftime, Diogu didn't reach double figures until making a pair of free throws with 20.3 seconds left. By then, ASU had built a 61-48 lead and already was thinking about this week's home series against the Washington schools.
"They had a pretty good zone going and they made it tough to throw the ball inside," said Diogu, who shot 2 for 7 against a formidable Oregon front line anchored by 7-foot forward Ian Crosswhite and
6-foot-10 forward Mitch Platt. "I'm not going to be able to go out and drop 30 every night. Guys like Serge stepped up and played really well for us."
Reach the reporter at brian.gomez@asu.edu.
