Tucson, AZ– ASU Basketball looked great on Saturday for their season finale and rivalry match up against Arizona in Tucson. The team broke out their alternate black uniforms and Jordan Bachynski chopped off his long locks and was sporting a new clean cut lid. However, their actual play on the court was pretty ugly as the Sun Devils (20-11 / 9-9 Pac-12) fell to the Arizona Wildcats (24-6 / 12-6 Pac-12) in Tucson, 73-58.

ASU Hoops falls to UofA in Tucson, 73-58.

Arizona State dug themselves a big hole by halftime and trailed by 15 points at the break. They kept the game close at the start, then the Wildcats slowly pulled away. The Sun Devils showed some fight in the second half and closed the gap to five points, but that’s as close as it would get. The contest was very physical and included 40 combined fouls and 3 technicals. Three players fouled out for the Devils (Bacynski, Gilling and Colvin). The other big factor was offensive rebounds. ASU had 3 and UofA had 10. Overall, ASU was outrebounded 32-22 on the glass.

The Wildcats protected their home court by playing aggressive and suffocating defense throughout the game. Carrick Felix managed to put together 22 points, Jahii Carson added 15 and Bachynski had 8, but the rest of the Sun Devils were missing in action (Jonathan Gilling (3), Chris Colvin (4), Evan Gordon (3). Once again, ASU struggled from the free throw line hitting 12-19 (63.2%).

But make no mistake, this game wasn’t decided by free throws. The combination of the aggressive Arizona defense, poor offensive rebounding, foul trouble and the lack of production by a few starters doomed the Sun Devils.

Next up is the final chance for ASU to punch their ticket to March Madness. They head to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Tournament, where they will have to win four straight games starting with the Stanford Cardinal (18-13 / 9-9 Pac-12) on Wednesday, March 13^th.