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Sun Devils rout Idaho State 90-55

The Arizona State Sun Devils were on the mark from beyond the top of the key. They nailed long-range jumpers from the left wing. They swished high-arching rainbows from the right corner.

In a non-conference matchup Tuesday against visiting Idaho State, the Sun Devils made a school-record 17 three-pointers on the way to a 90-55 rout over the Bengals at Wells Fargo Arena.

“Obviously we shot the ball well,” Arizona State head coach Herb Sendek said. “That helps in a lot of areas. A lot of things look good and feel good and go your way when you shoot the way we did today.”

The 20th-ranked Sun Devils (10-1) converted 17 of their 32 attempts from three-point range. Arizona State got five triples from Rihards Kuksiks, four from Ty Abbott, three each from James Harden and Derek Glasser, and two from Jerren Shipp.

“Guys passed the ball, we were aggressive and guys were ready to shoot the ball today,” said Harden, who scored a game-high 18 points and added five assists.

“I thought we really played excellent team basketball on both ends of the floor,” said Sendek. “It was a fun game from our standpoint to watch. It was good basketball.”

Arizona State collected 13 steals on defense, and the Sun Devils were whistled for just six fouls.

“We finished with 25 assists on 28 baskets, which is somewhat remarkable,” Sendek said.

Among ASU’s field-goal-producing passes was a toss from Harden to Jeff Pendergraph for an alley-oop dunk midway through the first half. The second half opened with Glasser, who led everyone with nine assists, feeding the ball to Harden for a left-handed slam. Harden hammered home another dunk on an alley-oop pass from Abbott to put the Sun Devils ahead 62-32 with 14:34 remaining.

Abbott, who finished with 14 points, began Arizona State’s long-range shooting barrage in the opening minute of the game when he converted a three-pointer from beyond the top of the key. His triple with 53 seconds remaining before halftime gave the Sun Devils a 43-28 lead at the intermission.

Arizona State began the second half with a 27-4 run, which was punctuated by a three-point basket by Glasser that increased ASU’s advantage to 70-32 with 11:28 left. Idaho State (2-8) never pulled closer than 32 points the rest of the way.

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“We talked about wanting to play well the entire game,” Sendek said. “To our guys’ credit, they didn’t need a lot of urging or me telling them to do that. They wanted to do that. They just went out and did it.”

Sendek said his team was wary of Idaho State, despite the Bengals’ losing record. The ASU coach pointed to Idaho State’s four-point victory over Utah, two-point loss to Wisconsin and overtime defeats against Hawaii, Boise State and Long Beach State as evidence that the Bengals are capable of going toe-to-toe with quality competition.

“We just wanted to play well and try to win the game today,” Sendek said. “We were very much on edge. We talked about Idaho State before we left the locker room at Glendale Stadium (where the Sun Devils defeated BYU 76-75 in the Stadium Shootout on Saturday). We were well aware of the fact they had the ball with 2.7 seconds to go at Madison (Wisconsin) with a chance to win the game. We know they beat Utah and they’ve lost three games in overtime to good teams. So we weren’t at all confused that we had to come out today and be very sharp.”

Five players scored in double figures Tuesday for the Sun Devils, including Kuksiks (who finished with 15 points), Pendergraph (who had 11 points and eight rebounds) and Glasser (who contributed 11 points to go with his nine assists).

By Tom Kessler
DFN Sports Staff Writer