With just seconds left in the first half, senior point guard Alston Mason drilled a deep three from the logo to put the Sun Devils up 40-33. Moments later, junior center Shawn Phillips Jr. swatted Iowa State guard Curtis Jones' jumper as Desert Financial Arena erupted. 30 minutes later, ASU could only watch as the No.3 Cyclones roared back and comfortably cruised to a 76-61 victory.
"We played a winning game for 35 minutes and we just had a meltdown for about two minutes and it cost us," head coach Bobby Hurley said.
ASU has lacked consistency throughout long periods of games but their recent play in the Big 12 has shined a light on just how far that pendulum swings. In four of their last six games, ASU has won one half and lost the other — all four of those games ended in losses.
"We couldn't put two of those halves together again and that was unfortunate offensively," Hurley said.
Exacerbating the issue is the level the Sun Devils prove they can play at. The Sun Devils ended the first half with 40 points shooting 56% from the field and 50% from long-range. They had nine assists, were able to generate clean looks, and held Iowa State to 33 points on just 43.5% shooting from the field.
But they simply were not able to sustain that level of play for 40 minutes, especially not down the stretch. In the last 6:40, the Cyclones outscored the Sun Devils 21-5. ASU turned the ball over 11 times in the second half and finished with just 21 points on a paltry 31.8% shooting from the field.
The 18 turnovers for the game were tied as ASU's highest on the year with the game against No.11 Kansas. Senior forward Basheer Jihad, one of the most experienced players on the team, had six turnovers including numerous forced passes in the final few minutes.
"I've got to make better decisions with the ball. I can't have six turnovers in a game like that," Jihad said. "I was seeing things that weren't there, that's what their defense is good at. So just being better with that, I've got to limit my turnovers and make better decisions."
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, this has become a pattern. Against Kansas in early January, the Sun Devils led at half 42-36, shooting nearly 47% from the field and only turning the ball over six times. In the second half, their offense short-circuited, scoring a meager 13 points on 21.7% shooting and giving the ball up 12 times.
The problems today stretch further than a poor five-minute stretch. The Sun Devils were foul-happy all game and the Cyclones took 30 free throws to ASU's 18 on the night, ASU's largest free throw differential of the year.
Despite the loss, it still was a bittersweet showing. ASU proved they had the talent to stick with an elite team for stretches but once again, the inability to string together two clean halves of basketball came back to hurt the Sun Devils.
"I respect my team for what they did and how they competed against a very good team," Hurley said. "We had answers for a lot of what they did for a good period of that game and we couldn't execute and we didn't stop them when we needed to."
Edited by Henry Smardo, Sophia Braccio and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at pvallur2@asu.edu and follow @PrathamValluri on X.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on X.
Pratham is a sophomore studying sports journalism with a minor in business. This is his fourth semester with The State Press.
