Asu Accepts Wazzu’s Gifts Last-Minute Mistakes Doom Cougars, Pave The Way For A Sun Devils Victory

Fans wearing Rose Bowl gear were given free admission to see Washington State play basketball Sunday, but the Cougars reserved their most generous giveaway for young men wearing maroon and gold.

Arizona State capitalized on several WSU miscues, overcoming a five-point deficit in the final 35 seconds before happily accepting an 86-85 Pacific-10 Conference victory in front of 3,103 fans at Beasley Coliseum. The Cougars led 85-80 with 34.1 seconds left. And then, they didn’t. Eddie House’s 3-pointer with 12 seconds left was the game-winner.

“Hey, man, it’s never over till it’s over,” said ASU coach Don Newman, the former Idaho point guard and WSU assistant. “We’ve got a lot of fight.”

The Sun Devils (12-5 overall, 2-2 Pac-10) received a few timely assists from the Cougars (7-7, 0-3).

Chris Crosby’s turnover on a long pass to Carlos Daniel precipitated the collapse with 35 seconds left.

ASU forward Urit Kelly stole Crosby’s offering and was immediately fouled by Daniel. Kelly hit the first free throw, pulling ASU within 85-81.

Kelly’s second attempt bounced straight to ASU’s best player, Jeremy Veal, who quickly swished an 18-footer, closing the gap to 85-83 with 29 seconds left.

ASU stayed alive when Daniel clanked two free throws with 20 seconds left.

Kelly rebounded Daniel’s second miss and got the ball to point guard Ahlon Lewis. House, standing near the right wing, was Home Alone.

“Carlos Daniel was stuck in between either guarding Ahlon, who could go all the way to the hole and score a bucket, or taking me,” House explained. “And he chose to take Ahlon, which probably would have been the most logical thing to do, seeing as how I was shooting.”

House had made just 2 of 10 field goals before sinking the game-winner.

WSU had two more chances, but point guard Blake Pengelly dribbled off his leg and out of bounds with 9.9 seconds left, and Daniel missed a 17-footer at the buzzer.

“Should have pulled it out,” a downcast Daniel managed. “Didn’t.”

Daniel led all players with 28 points, 14 rebounds and two blocked shots. He is averaging 27 points and 13 rebounds in Pac-10 play.

Crosby added 17 points, but grabbed just three rebounds and committed five turnovers. Backup guard Will Hutchens scored a career-high 12 points. Pengelly added nine points and a career-high eight assists.

Veal led the Sun Devils with 26 points, including 18 in the first half. Lewis controlled the game in the second half, finishing with 21 points, seven assists and only two turnovers.

While Veal and Lewis put up big numbers, and House came through with the game-winning 3, it was Kelly who may have made the biggest difference when the game was in the balance.

The 6-6, 185-pound senior scored six points, including four on tip-ins, as the Sun Devils turned a 61-56 deficit into a 64-63 lead midway through the second half.

“Kelly killed us with offensive rebounds there,” WSU coach Kevin Eastman said.

There was plenty of blame to go around, but Eastman chose to focus on the positives, dismissing the notion that this was a devastating defeat.

“I would really see it the complete opposite,” Eastman said. “I see it as us playing a whale of a game. You put player against player, they could potentially blow us out.”

Of course, last-minute losses go down a bit easier in the absence of expectation. The Cougars were picked ninth in the Pac-10, and that was before leading scorer Rodrigo de la Fuente signed with FC Barcelona last week.

(In a related story, former WSU recruit Ron Selleaze, now with BYU, scored 26 points against third-ranked Utah on Saturday night.)

“We’ll never really dwell on the past with this particular club,” Eastman said. “Other clubs, you can do that. But with this club, we just have to keep going to the next game.

“There are correctable things that we hope won’t consistently happen throughout the course of the rest of the games,” Eastman added.

One thing the Cougars cannot correct is their lack of quickness. WSU committed 20 turnovers, many resulting from ASU’s ability to play the passing lanes.

“I felt we could hurt them with that,” Newman said. “When we turned that dial up, we got some easy looks, some layups, and that turned the momentum of the game.”

Countered Daniel, “It wasn’t so much their pressure. We just didn’t handle the pressure of the situation.”

Eastman attributed several of the turnovers to fatigue, although ASU may be the only Pac-10 team with less depth.

The Sun Devils have just seven scholarship players - two fewer than WSU - and they played without sophomore guard Jason Patton. The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Patton was benched after several lackluster practices, Newman said.

Only seven Sun Devils saw action, including walk-on Ron DuBois, who played just two minutes.

Both teams were hurt by illness. WSU’s Pengelly and Crosby missed practice Saturday, while ASU center Mike Batiste missed part of the first half after becoming nauseous.

Arizona St. 86, Washington St. 85

Arizona State (12-5) - Veal 9-19 6-8 26, Batiste 5-11 3-5 13, Lazor 2-8 4-6 9, House 3-11 0-0 8, Lewis 7-11 6-8 21, DuBois 0-0 0-0 0, Kelly 4-5 1-2 9. Totals 30-65 20-29 86.

Washington State (7-7) - Daniel 9-19 10-15 28, Crosby 6-13 2-4 17, Nelson 1-5 0-0 2, Pengelly 3-9 0-0 9, Kazadi 2-5 4-4 8, Hutchens 5-6 0-0 12, Mensah-Bonsu 1-2 3-4 5, Slotemaker 2-5 0-0 4. Totals 29-64 19-27 85.

Halftime - Washington State 49, Arizona State 41. 3-point goals - Arizona State 6-15 (House 2-4, Veal 2-6, Lazor 1-2, Lewis 1-3), Washington State 8-24 (Pengelly 3-7, Crosby 3-8, Hutchens 2-3, Daniel 0-2, Kazadi 0-2, Slotemaker 0-2). Fouled out - Lazor. Rebounds - Arizona State 34 (Veal 7), Washington State 46 (Daniel 14). Assists - Arizona State 12 (Lewis 7), Washington State 15 (Pengelly 8). Total fouls - Arizona State 23, Washington State 23. Technicals - Batiste. A - 3,103.

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