No. 14 ASU (7-3) underachieve at home versus No. 13 Illinois (6-2) after losing 26-9 Sunday afternoon.
Anthony Valencia fell short against the top-ranked wrestler at the 165 lbs. division. The script was written quickly on Sunday as Illinois No. 1 redshirt junior Isaiah Martinez avoided the upset and overwhelmed ASU's No. 8 redshirt freshman Valencia via pin with .11 seconds left in the third period.
ASU's No. 8 Anthony Valencia is pinned by Illinois's No. Isaiah Martinez with 11 seconds to go in the third period.
— Felipe Corral Jr⁶ (@FelipeCorralJr) January 30, 2017
Head coach Zeke Jones was pleased with his young team’s effort, but vouches for collective improvement as postseason competition is around the corner.
“They are game-planning us now,” Jones said. “I think our freshman were excited at the beginning of the year, but now they are getting hunted. They have to adjust, they have to figure out what they have to do to get their hand raised.”
Illinois got out to a quick 8-0 lead over the Sun Devils after wins at 125 lbs. and 133 lbs., but ASU’s sophomore Nikko Villarreal cut the deficit to 8-3 after defeating Illinois’s sophomore Mousa Jodeh 5-4 — with the help of his one minute riding time.
It went downhill from there for the Sun Devils as they lost three in a row at 149lbs., 157 lbs.and 165 lbs. The lead went out of reach as Illinois went up 20-3.
ASU suffered back-to-back losses for the first time this season and are 0-3 versus ranked opponents. They once again look for redemption as they head to Corvallis, Oregon to face OSU in a Pac-12 conference battle on Sunday, Feb. 5 at 2:00 p.m. MST.
Reach the reporter at fcorral1@asu.edu or follow @felipecorraljr on Twitter.
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