Arizona State rolls to 82-65 road win over Colorado
Marreon Jackson scored 13 points off the bench in the first half, Jay Heath and Luther Muhammad combined to put up 27 points on 9-of-10 shooting in the second half, and Arizona State rolled right over Colorado Thursday night to an 82-65 road win.
The Sun Devils went up by as many as 26 points with just under seven minutes to play in the second half before cooling off from the field over the final 6:53. The Sun Devils only hit one shot from the floor over that closing stretch (though they still scored eight points from the foul line) and worked until the final buzzer to make things look more respectable.
Arizona State (11-16, 7-10 Pac-12) has now won four of its last five.
It wasn’t a fast start for ASU, rather a streaky first half.
After back-and-forth play over the game’s first 10 minutes, Arizona State used an 11-0 run over roughly two-and-a-half minutes to stretch out in front by nine. Colorado then used a two-minute 7-1 spurt to get back within a possession with just five minutes to play in the opening half. ASU then used an 11-1 spurt to head into the locker room up double-digits at halftime.
Muhammad was hot coming out to start the second half, and then midway through Heath took over with a scoring explosion. Heath supplied 10 points over a three-minute span to spearhead a 12-3 run and give ASU its biggest lead of the game, a margin that proved too much for Colorado to work back from.
Heath finished with a game-high 18 points. Jackson finished with 17 and Muhammad with 15.
Beyond the individual scoring brilliance from ASU’s guards, it was the defensive performance on the other end that ratcheted up and allowed the Sun Devils to blow the game open.
After opening the game shooting 10-for-20 from the field, CU hit just five of its next 21 shots as the Sun Devils stretched out in front. Jackson came away with five steals; Colorado turned it over 14 times total.
The Buffs were led by Evan Battey’s 13 points, Jabari Walker’s 12, and Keeshawn Barthelemy’s 10.
Arizona State is back in action on Saturday against Utah at 7 p.m. PT. Colorado (18-10, 10-8 Pac-12) wraps up its regular-season home schedule Saturday with a 5 p.m. PT showdown with No. 2 Arizona.