Arizona State basketball spiraling after another loss

Posted by author February 5, 2025 Basketball

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The slide continued for Arizona State men’s basketball, which dropped its fifth straight game at home, 71-70 to visiting Kansas State. True freshman Jayden Quaintance, the youngest player in college basketball at 17, went to the line with ASU trailing by a point and 4 seconds left but missed both free throws. Kansas State grabbed the rebound to run out the clock.

The Sun Devils (12-10, 3-8) entered Tuesday’s contest against Kansas State with a better record. Ten days ago ASU lost to Iowa State by 15 points; just two days ago Kansas State bested the Cyclones by 20 points. So this appeared to be another game that was going to be a battle.

Nothing has come easy for the Sun Devils and this one didn’t either, even when it looked like it should.

ASU surged to an 18-2 lead with the Wildcats missing their first 10 shots from the field and not scoring until the 13:21 mark of the first half. But Kansas State (11-11, 4-7) closed the half with a 16-3 run and took its first lead of the game on a 3-pointer by C.J. Jones with 43 seconds left in the half that made it 35-32.

For the second straight game, ASU had a player ejected after a Flagrant 2. Adam Miller was ejected with 7:54 to play and K-State leading 53-49. B.J. Freeman was ejected in the closing seconds of ASU’s loss to Arizona on Saturday.

Miller finished with 10 points.

Head coach Bobby Hurley didn’t want to put the loss on the shoulders of Quaintance, saying there were a lot of issues that led the game to being closer than it should have.

“He’s had such a great season for us, such a young player,” Hurley said. “It’s a lot to put on his shoulders, to make those at that moment. There were a lot of other things that happened, that we would have been in a better position to win this game.”

ASU shot 38.6% (22-for-57) but was just 12-for-37 from long distance. Alston Mason had 20 points while Quaintance pulled down 10 rebounds.

Kansas State shot 46.6% (27-for-58) with a 10-for-26 from long distance. David N’Guessan tallied a game-high 22 points with eight rebounds. The Wildcats also finished with a 30-16 advantage in points in the paint.