Freshman Luguentz Dort scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds Sunday as Arizona State rallied from a halftime deficit to avoid what would have been an embarrassing loss to California, beating the Golden Bears 69-59 in a Pac-12 Conference matchup in Tempe, Ariz.
Rob Edwards added 16 for the Sun Devils (19-8, 10-5), which trailed 34-28 at intermission against an opponent that entered the day with 22 straight conference losses, as well as 31 in their last 32 Pac-12 contests.
But the Sun Devils started the second half with a 20-8 spurt and were able to hold off the visitors from there.
Freshman guard Matt Bradley pumped in a game-high 23 points for California (5-22, 0-15), going 5 of 7 from the 3-point line, and grabbed 10 rebounds. Paris Austin contributed 10 points, but the Golden Bears made just 8 of 24 second half shots.
Arizona State, whose NCAA Tournament at-large hopes likely would have absorbed a crippling blow without the comeback, wasted little time putting its stamp on the game after halftime.
A Zylan Cheatham layup tied the score less than four minutes into the second half at 37, and Dort canned a 3-pointer at the 15:33 mark to give the Sun Devils the lead for good.
Edwards hit consecutive 3-pointers in a 40-second span to give the Sun Devils a 56-44 advantage with 8:55 remaining. Dort's dunk with 4:57 left made it 64-49, and the game's remainder was just a race to the final horn.
Arizona State made just 7 of 27 shots from the field in the first half, but canned 57.1 percent of its attempts after halftime. It also picked up its work on the boards, matching Cal's 35 rebounds after being outrebounded 23-18 in the first half.
The Sun Devils opened up a 16-8 lead just before the halfway point of the first half as Dort sank two foul shots.
But the Golden Bears controlled the final 10 minutes, scoring five points in the last nine seconds on a 3-ball by Darius McNeill and two foul shots by Bradley for their six-point margin at the half.
--Field Level Media
California | Arizona State | |
Matt Bradley 23 | Scoring | Luguentz Dort 22 |
Justice Sueing 4 | Assists | Remy Martin 5 |
Matt Bradley 10 | Rebounds | Zylan Cheatham 12 |
Paris Austin 4 | Free Throws Made | Luguentz Dort 8 |
Justice Sueing 3 | Steals | Rob Edwards 2 |
Grant Anticevich 2 | Blocks | De'Quon Lake 2 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
California | 59 | 37.0 | 9-20 | 10-12 | 11 | 29 | 5 | 6 | 17 |
Arizona State | 69 | 41.8 | 7-21 | 16-21 | 12 | 34 | 2 | 7 | 11 |