ASU Basketball: Sun Devils win back-and-forth battle with Utah on Senior Day

TEMPE - You can insert the “punch-for-punch” or “stride-for-stride” cliches here. Arizona State (19-9, 10-7 Pac-12) and Utah (17-11, 10-7 Pac-12) competed in a slugfest Saturday evening that resulted in a 69-57 win for the Sun Devils on Senior Day at Desert Financial Arena on Saturday.

In fitting fashion, five of the top six ASU scorers were seniors who were honored pregame: Warren Washington (18), Desmond Cambridge Jr. (15), Devan Cambridge (14), DJ Horne (8) and Luther Muhammad (4). Frankie Collins had 8 points.

Utah went into the halftime locker room up 26-25. Before Saturday, Utah was 13-0 when leading at half.

In the second half, the ASU offense ran through Washington in the pick-and-roll game. That led to his 14 second-half points, and the Sun Devils and Utah trading points for the majority of the second half.

Forty of the 67 Sun Devil points were scored in the paint.

ASU only shot 3-for-15 from deep. Saturday was the first ASU win in which it made 3 three-pointers or fewer since the Senior Day-victory over Stanford in 2022. Two of the biggest shots of the night were three-balls from the Cambridge brothers in the second half. Desmond’s put ASU up by a point, and Devan’s expanded the one-point lead to four. Both came with under two minutes to play, and both could be considered daggers.

They didn’t come in bunches, but when they did, the three-pointers mattered.

Horne and Collins put the game on ice with free throws.

Still an NCAA Tournament long-shot, ASU could boost its resume with Arizona, UCLA and USC remaining in the regular season.