Arizona State shoots past Texas Southern

Arizona State men’s basketball finished out their non-conference schedule on Saturday afternoon with a game against Texas Southern University. Heading into Pac-12 Conference play the Devils were looking to finish strong against a sub par Tiger team.

It was apparent from the outset that the Sun Devils had the better talent. Arizona State jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead before Texas Southern could get on the scoreboard.

The Tigers got back within two at 14-12, but then the Sun Devils put on a 9-0 run and all of a sudden it was 23-12. The other aspect of the game was that Texas Southern went scoreless in stretches during the first half. While the Tigers were going without buckets, the Sun Devils were scoring.

Texas Southern made a few small runs to get the score within 10 points a couple of times, but never really threatened more than that.

However, the Tigers were hanging around to an extent. If you give a team a chance to hang around then anything can happen.

Romello White did go down with a bad ankle injury and remained out the rest of the game. White had to be helped off the court by a couple of his teammates. The full extent of his injury remains to be seen, but it is definitely an ankle injury.

“I’m going to give Remello a couple of days of rest.” Coach Hurley said in his post game comments.

Taeshon Cherry slammed it at the first half buzzer and the Sun Devils held a commanding lead at 48-33.

You would expect the Sun Devils to come out and put their foot down on Texas Southern. The Devils tried to completely put the Tigers away, but it never really happened. Arizona State got up by 17 at one point, but Texas Southern showed some scrap.

The Tigers did get the Sun Devil lead down to seven with 11:32 left in the game. That is as close as Texas Southern got for the rest of the game.

Eddie House, Remy Martin, and Alonzo Verge Jr combined for 66 points on Saturday afternoon. The three point shot fell for the Devils for the first time in a while. Arizona State was 12-25 from behind the arc on Saturday afternoon.

“It was contagious today seeing the ball go in.” Jaelen House said.

At the end of the day it was a 98-81 win for the Sun Devils. Arizona State finishes their non-conference schedule at 9-4 which isn’t to bad considering the schedule they had and the travel associated with that schedule.

Now comes the grueling Pac-12 Conference schedule where teams seem to eat each other on the way to the conference tournament and March Madness.

Arizona State opens up Pac-12 play down in Tucson on January 4th. After that the Sun Devils stay on the road against the Oregon schools.