Final score: Arizona State 81, Arizona 78
Location: Wells Fargo Arena, Tempe
What went down: Arizona point guard T.J. McConnell dropped a season-high 25 points (11-19 FGs, 3-4 3-pointers), grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists but it wasn't enough as the Wildcats lost their second straight game at Wells Fargo Arena.
Miller's record against ASU: 8-4
Bruce Pascoe's game story:
TEMPE — Sensing immediately that something was wrong with his defense, Arizona coach Sean Miller said he called timeout after about 90 seconds Saturday.
Actually, it wasn't even a minute. Fifty-five seconds, to be exact.
If that was an indication time moved slowly, agonizingly slowly, for the No. 6 Wildcats in their 81-78 upset loss at ASU, you can imagine how Miller felt after the game. His defense had turned into the same sort of sieve it did late in losses to UNLV and Oregon State, only this time it leaked for most of the game.
"We didn't have it, and we never got it," he said of his "D."
In their second straight loss at Wells Fargo Arena — after ASU outlasted the poor-shooting Wildcats 69-66 in double overtime last season — Arizona this time failed on defense. The Wildcats allowed the Sun Devils to shoot an even 50 percent from the field and make 7 of 15 three-pointer attempts, including a 25-foot game-clinching dagger by Bo Barnes with 54 seconds to go.
Barnes' three gave ASU a 75-68 lead, and while there were still many timeouts and turnovers and made baskets that made the final seconds interesting, Miller knew where it was all heading.
He did much earlier in the game, apparently.
"Sometimes as a game plays itself out, and you deep down feel like you didn't deserve to win, and really that's how I felt," Miller said. "We broke down way, way too many times.
"ASU was the better team today. They played harder, moved the ball better, executed, and they earned the right to win."
The loss dropped the Cats to 20-3 overall and 8-2 in the Pac-12, where they sat in a loss-column tie with Utah in first place before the Utes faced Colorado later Saturday. The loss may have dealt the Wildcats a blow toward earning a No. 1 NCAA tournament seed, and they still have four road games remaining, including one at Utah on Feb. 28.
ASU improved to 12-11 and 4-6, having won four of its past six and, it hopes, having turned a corner for good after an 0-4 start to Pac-12 play.
"This one validates our season," said ASU forward Savon Goodman, who led the Sun Devils with 15 points and nine rebounds. "We've been fighting adversity."
The Sun Devils started Pac-12 play with a heavy dose of adversity, losing 73-49 to UA at McKale Center, continued with three more losses and, even when things were going better, were dealt an overtime loss to Oregon last week.
This was different. Much different.
You could see it from the deeper-than-normal ASU student crowd of 2,034 — a student crowd Sendek said was "incredible" among the overall attendance of 10,876 — and in the quieter-than-normal quarter of the crowd that was pulling for the Wildcats.
UA fans knew something was wrong, too.
ASU scored on two early possessions before Miller's first timeout and kept going. The Sun Devils shot 53.3 percent in the first half while taking a 41-34 halftime lead.
"I guess we just weren't ready, to be honest," said guard T.J. McConnell, who had a season-high 25 points. "When we have a team that's not ready, we're not going to win against any team."
It was only the second time the Wildcats had trailed at halftime in Pac-12 play — Stanford led them 41-39 in UA's win Jan. 22 at Maples Pavilion — and the Wildcats led Oregon State 21-20 in their Jan. 11 loss at Corvallis.
But while the Cats were initially able to offset their defensive troubles with good shooting — they led by seven with nine minutes left in the first half — it all caught up to them when their shooting slumped.
Arizona shot just 40.5 percent in the first half and was particularly hurt inside: ASU out-rebounded the Cats 21-17 and scored 22 points in the paint to UA's 14 in the first half.
While Arizona managed to shoot 50 percent in the second half, it was just 6 of 16 from three-point range for the game and forced to rely heavily on McConnell, who had his season high in scoring but also four turnovers to four assists.
"T.J. did everything in his power to give us a chance," Miller said.
In the first half, Brandon Ashley and Kaleb Tarczewski both went 1 for 5 from the field with three rebounds each, and while they were both more impactful in the second half, Miller wasn't too wild about the Wildcats' interior defense the entire game.
Because while Barnes, Jonathan Gilling and Gerry Blakes each had two three-pointers for ASU, which was exactly Miller's biggest stated concern before the game, the Sun Devils also beat up UA inside.
Having been limping along all season without departed shot-blocker Jordan Bachynski, the Sun Devils managed to outplay UA inside by getting help from big man Eric Jacobsen and Goodman, who made four layups over the first five minutes of the second half to help ASU expand its 41-34 halftime lead to nine points.
From there, Arizona never recovered.
The Wildcats cut ASU's lead to 65-63 with five minutes to go, but Blakes hit a three-pointer to put the Sun Devils up 68-63, and ASU carried a five-point lead into the final media timeout, with 3:17 left.
The Wildcats didn't get within three the rest of the way until McConnell hit a three-pointer with one second left before the buzzer sounded.
"They picked on a number of our guys," Miller said. "And the way that ASU plays offense from one side to the next really tests your discipline, and we had very poor discipline. A number of shots happened because we lost sight of the ball or our man, reaching at the end of the clock. All of the things that contribute to not winning the game, we did."
