Former Pac-12 foes Oregon State and Arizona State meet Sunday in Tempe, Ariz., to close out their nonconference slates and recover from losses on Wednesday.
Arizona State (9-3) fell by 13 at UCLA while Oregon State (6-6) suffered an 85-75 home defeat to Sam Houston.
Arizona State’s other two losses were to then-No. 19 Gonzaga at home and USC in the Maui Invitational championship. Coach Bobby Hurley does not apologize for any of them.
“I easily could have bought six games this year, seven games, and played a few hard games,” Hurley said. “You’ve got to go play people. You’ve got to get exposed a little bit.
“You’ve got to get punched in the mouth. We got punched in the mouth a little bit (at UCLA), but I think we’ll respond.”
One positive to come out of the UCLA game was Arizona State making 25 of its 26 free-throw attempts.
Anthony Johnson made all 14 of his attempts at the line to finish with a team-high 20 points in 22 minutes.
Maurice Odum leads the Sun Devils with 16.2 points per game, but he scored only 24 points over the last three games against Northern Arizona, Santa Clara and UCLA.
In those three games, he made 8 of 26 (30.8%) shots from the field and 2 of 16 (12.5%) from 3-point range — including an 0-for-7 performance from beyond the arc against UCLA.
Oregon State last played Arizona State on Feb. 14, 2024, when the Sun Devils won the Pac-12 game by a 79-61 count in Tempe.
Oregon State’s loss to Sam Houston ended a three-game winning streak after the Beavers had lost five straight.
“I was very disappointed with our lack of effort,” Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said. “It was going to be a rock fight. We needed to be ready to protect home court and be ready for a fight. Too many of us weren’t ready for that, so shame on us.”
Josiah Lake II led the Beavers with 19 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the floor, which boosted his team-high average to 13.1 ppg.
