ASU men's basketball (9-3) had a battle in front of them from Stephen F. Austin (7-4) on Tuesday afternoon. Without junior forward Savon Goodman, the Sun Devils needed a spark from other players on their roster.
Coming off a 20-point outing the other night against Houston Baptist, sophomore guard Kodi Justice failed to find the same form in the first half, registering only one point on 0-3 shooting to go along with his one rebound and one assist.
With Justice cold, junior forward Obinna Oleka stepped up.
He led all ASU players at half with nine points on 4-5 shooting. Oleka also had four boards, highlighted by a strong offensive rebound and put-back to convert an and-one to hold off a pesky SFA with 2:22 left in the first half.
The Sun Devils held the 41-34 lead at the half.
In the second, the Lumberjacks would not go down without a fight. They cut the Sun Devils' 12-point lead to three. Senior forward Clide Geffrard led the charge, raking up 20 points while their leading scorer, senior forward Thomas Walkup (15.6 points per game), finished with 18.
Four free throws and a three pointer in the last 2:22 made it difficult for the Sun Devils to close SFA out.
At the end of the afternoon, it was sophomore guard Tra Holder who paved the way for the Sun Devils, scoring 18 points on 6-11 shooting to go with eight rebounds for the six-foot one-inch guard. It's his fifth straight double-digit scoring game, a career high.
Willie Atwood spoke about his teammate's recent success.
“He's real big," he said. "We always look forward to Tra making big plays because that's what Tra can do.”
Assistant coach Rashon Burno spoke at the press conference in place of Bobby Hurley, who left after the game for personal reasons. Burno said Holder's improvement comes from confidence.
“Coach Hurley has done a really good job of instilling confidence in (Holder),” he said. “Give Tra credit, he actually spends a lot of time on the court and also in film, I think that has been a really true maturation of his game.”
Atwood contributed as an efficient scorer for the Sun Devils as he shot 3-5 from the field (2-4 from 3-point) and 10-10 from the charity stripe.
“Free throws have been big priority," he said. "Coach really makes us shoot a lot of free throws at the end of practice to make us focus on them.”
ASU found itself losing the turnover battle early from constant pressure by the physical SFA backcourt. Senior guard Gerry Blakes called it "scrappy."
"Coach was just telling us to be strong with the ball, make the right read and attack," he said.
ASU closed out to win 80-73. It was a tale of efficiency and rebounding for Bobby Hurley’s squad, outshooting SFA 49 percent to 45.2 percent and out-rebounding the Lumberjacks 35 to 30.
"We've got really good parts who can score the ball... but as a group, we're better," Burno said. "We're better when we play together, when we share the ball and when we do the things that impact winning."
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