BYU seeks its second 5-0 start in the past three seasons when it faces Arizona State on Thursday night in the opening round of the Vegas Showdown at Las Vegas.
It isn’t hard to pinpoint the most impressive of the Cougars’ four straight wins. They took down then-No. 17 San Diego State, a national finalist last season, 74-65 on Nov. 10 in Provo, Utah.
BYU will be the toughest foe the Sun Devils (2-1) have seen thus far.
Arizona State avoided what would have been a stunning upset in its last game on Nov. 16, closing with a 14-2 run over the final 1:50 to post a 71-69 victory over UMass Lowell. Frankie Collins’ layup with 2.1 seconds remaining gave the Sun Devils the victory.
“We didn’t want to lose at home,” Sun Devils guard Jose Perez said afterward. “We wanted to give the fans something to go home to, and I felt like we came out with the win and that’s all that mattered. It didn’t matter who scored or in a matter of those two minutes.”
Perez scored 20 points to pace Arizona State, but perhaps most important was the career-best eight steals Collins racked up.
Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley was exasperated with the play of his squad for most of the game.
“Finally, the last eight minutes of the game we played with, I thought, good desperation,” Hurley said.
BYU is coming off a 93-50 rout of Morgan State on Nov. 18. It marked the third time the Cougars won by more than 40 points this season.
Jaxson Robinson led BYU with 19 points, and Fousseyni Traore added 17 in the balanced attack that features seven players averaging at least nine points per game and five in double digits.
“It has been super fun to see that we are rolling,” said Richie Saunders, fifth on the club with a 10.5 scoring average. “It doesn’t matter who is on the floor, or what combinations. … I love playing with all of these guys. We are playing for each other.”
Robinson is averaging a team-best 15.3 points, followed by Traore (13.3), Trevin Knell (13.0) and Spencer Johnson (12.0). Knell has made a team-best 11 3-pointers.
This is the 50th meeting between the Cougars and Sun Devils. BYU leads the series 27-22 and won the most recent meeting, 81-68, on Dec. 8, 2009, at Provo, Utah.
The winner of Thursday’s contest will meet either North Carolina State or Vanderbilt in Friday’s championship game. The two losing teams will play in the third-place game.
–Field Level Media