ASU Basketball: Sun Devils fend off Stanford to earn fourth straight win

Arizona State’s (16-8, 7-4 Pac-12) strong play as of late continued Thursday night as they took down the Stanford Cardinal (16-8, 5-6) 74-69 in Maples Pavilion to notch their fourth straight victory and sixth win in their last seven contests.

The Sun Devils were in control, leading for all but a little over two minutes in the first half. Much of that can be attributed to an impressive scoring outing from a pair of ASU guards, as juniors Remy Martin and Alonzo Verge Jr. combined to score more than 60 percent of the Sun Devils’ points.

Behind Martin’s 24 points on 9-14 shooting and Verge’s 19 points on 8-13 shooting, ASU was able to withstand a litany of Stanford pushes as the Sun Devils collected a commanding victory in the first leg of their northern California trip.

Beyond Martin and Verge, the scoring punch was sparse. Junior forward Kimani Lawrence bounced back from a poor performance last week against USC with a strong showing from outside Thursday, finishing with 11 points on 2-4 shooting from three.

Freshman forward Jalen Graham was another key contributor for ASU in its win over Stanford, scoring six points on 3-3 shooting while pulling down five rebounds.

However, the scoring brilliance of Martin and Verge was the defining story of Thursday’s victory, as Martin’s 24 points was the highest total by any Stanford opponent so far this season.

The junior guard came out of the gates firing, connecting on his first five attempts of the first half to finish with 13 points in the period.

The second half was Verge’s time to shine, as the junior college transfer used a 12-point period to supplant his 19-point scoring effort, adding a team-high seven rebounds and four assists.

Vaulted all the way to third in the conference, ASU now only stands one loss behind conference leaders in Oregon and Colorado in the standings.

Additionally, ASU’s current four-game Pac-12 winning streak is the first time that they have accomplished the feat since the 2009-10 season.

The Sun Devils will look to make up more ground this Sunday as they take on the California Golden Bears with a rare afternoon tip-off.