ASU Basketball: Sun Devils fall in Boulder 77-73

On their Rocky Mountain road trip, the Arizona State Sun Devils (16-8, 7-5 Pac-12) dropped the first half of the trip to the Colorado Buffaloes (15-9, 6-6) 77-73.

ASU struggled to the stop the Buffs in the second half after a sloppy first half by both teams, Colorado shot 56 percent after halftime. Sophomore guard McKinley Wright was limited to 12 points the first time the two teams met. On Wednesday, Wright had a game-high 24 points on 9 of 12 shooting.

Sophomore guard Tyler Bey added 22 points and grabbed a season-high in rebounds with 17. Bey was also a non-factor in the first meeting of the season, he only had seven points and six rebounds.

The Buffalos were more physical than the Sun Devils at the basket. Colorado won the rebounding battle 39-33, even more shocking redshirt senior forward Zylan Cheatham only had 10 boards. ASU also got outscored in the paint 38-26 after dominating against Washington in their previous game.

ASU’s leading scorer was freshman guard Luguentz Dort, he had 21 points in a losing effort, including a good night from the free throw line as he went 8 for 9. Dort, redshirt sophomore forward Romello White and freshman forward Taeshon Cherry each had eights points at halftime. While Dort added another 13 points to his game total, White and Cherry only scored a combined two points in the second half.

Guards Remy Martin and Rob Edwards didn’t have their best nights either. Martin only had nine points on 4 of 10 shooting. Edwards had a similar night to his Washington State performance, which as Bobby Hurley described it as ‘unacceptable.’ Edwards went 1 for 7 from the field, he scored only four points.

ASU will attempt to bounce back on Saturday when they play the Utah Utes at 8:00 p.m. in Salt Lake City.