The Arizona State basketball team improves to 18-8 with their sixth straight victory on Thursday night. They’ve won three games at home and three on the road. The Pac-12 isn’t a very strong conference but it is tough to sustain a long winning streak. Three wins include a tough game against USC and two impressive wins on the road against Stanford and ranked Oregon. This six-game winning streak quickly turned their season around as they will try and keep the impressive streak alive.
Arizona State Basketball Wins Their Sixth Straight
A Close One At Washington (87-83)
To many’s surprise, Washington is having a very disappointing season. Coming into this one, they lost four straight but Arizona State was just 12-8 entering this game. The Sun Devils got 18 points from three players and a 19 point performance. Romello White had one of those 18 point performances as he also had seven rebounds. Another 18 point performance came from Alonzo Verge Jr off of the bench as he added five rebounds to that. Washington didn’t play a bad game as all of their starters had double-digits but they didn’t get the level of scoring as Arizona State did. This was just the beginning of wins starting to pile up.
Big Win Against UCLA (84-66)
Arizona State did it on both sides of the ball. They limited three starters to single digits while they had three starters in double-digits and a huge night from the bench. White had an impressive 16 rebounds as a starter. When I said they had a huge night from the bench, it was really one player. Verge Jr had another big game as he scored a whopping 26 points on 10-16 shooting and 3-3 from three. This win gave them confidence heading into their next game vs a tough USC team.
Neck And Neck With USC (66-64)
This was two close for comfort as they had their two-game winning streak in Jeopardy. Remy Martin scored 19 points in the first game and 15 in the second. He went higher as he scored 22 with five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Verge Jr had yet another great game from the bench as he scored 16. USC is a very tough team this year and leading up to this game, they’ve piled up a few wins in a row but would also lose a few in a row. Nonetheless, this team is relentless and wouldn’t go away but Arizona State held on and now have a solid three-game winning streak to this point.
Tough Two-game Road Trip
After a three-game winning streak, the Sun Devils had to travel to Stanford and Cal for two games. Both games were very close. During this two-game stretch, Martin had 46 points as a starter and Verge Jr. had 41. They beat Stanford 74-69 even after being outscored in the second half. White had a double-double in the game against Cal with 10 points and 10 rebounds as they won 80-75 as they went back home with two wins and a five-game winning streak.
Upset against Oregon 77-72
This was by far the toughest game out of the past six games. They faced #14 Oregon on Thursday night, who won six of their last eight heading into this one. Ducks’ starters combined for 46 points and 24 rebounds. The Sun Devil attack was much stronger as they had 24 points from starter Rob Edwards and a vintage 26 points off the bench for Verge Jr. White has been a rebounding machine as of late as he had 11 rebounds. This was a really impressive win and it looks promising moving forward.
Last Shot
Arizona State has had consistent play over this six-game stretch, especially from Verge Jr., who has been dominant off of the bench. They’ve been getting enough from their starters in all facets of the game. Arizona State will try to make it seven in a row when they stay home and welcome 15-11 Oregon State to town.
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