Arizona State continues to dominate with 60-25 win

Arizona State showed on Thursday why it is the top ranked team in NCAA Basketball by seeing off Washington State in a record breaking game that ended 60-25. The Wildcats continued to impress as the defense got tight on Washington and pushed the Cougars from the game.

The home team put in a classy defensive performance while a weakened Washington faltered from the field to be restricted to just 25 points throughout the entire game. Arizona State only needed to collect 60 points to secure a win and naturally a few records toppled along the way. The Pac-12 opener for Arizona brought with it a record for the fewest points scored at the school´s McKale Arena in Tucson.

Washington takes the dubious prize of the lowest scorers at the venue away from Northern Arizona with 37 points in 1989. The Cougars also notched their lowest total since 1938 when they secured the same amount in Idaho. Washington forward D.J. Shelton put a brave face on the performance when he said “They did a good job shutting us down,” which is definitely a massive understatement.

Of course the game was never in doubt as Arizona opened a 21-2 first quarter lead and led 28-7 as the halftime buzzer sounded. Indeed, the Wildcats never had to move out of a neutral scoring rhythm and in fact the game high points haul was a mere 11 points from Kaleb Tarczewski. It was in the defensive arc where the team did its damage, restricting The Cougars to just 9 for 45 from the field, and even that stat only came courtesy of some late scores from the visitors.

Washington also broke a few other unwanted McKale Arena records. The Cougars hit an all-time low 9 field goals at the venue, beating North Arizona´s 13 in that 1989 game, while Washington´s 20% shooting was also worse than the NAU team from two decades ago. Admittedly the Cougars were without starter Dexter Kernich-Drew because of a concussion and leading scorer DaVonte Lacy was also missing due to an emergency appendectomy on Saturday.

Arizona´s guard Nick Johnson praised the team’s defense while saying they are aiming to be the number 1 back court team in the NCAA.

“Our goal all season was to be a top-10 defense,” Arizona’s Nick Johnson said. “I think we should push that to a top-five and eventually the No. 1 defense in the country, because I think we have the tools to make it happen. This, I guess, is an example of what we can do.”

Wildcats Head Coach Sean Miller conceded that the team was helped by Washington´s injury problems, but praised the defensive effort nonetheless.

“We know that they were playing short-handed,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “Having said that, I thought our defensive effort was outstanding. … It’s a little bit of both, probably not as great a defensive effort as the score would reflect. At the same time, I think we leave here feeling good about what we were able to accomplish.”