Scouting report: No. 7 Arizona Wildcats at Arizona State Sun Devils

The Star's Bruce Pascoe breaks down the starting lineups, storylines and stats as the No. 7-ranked Arizona Wildcats visit the Arizona State Sun Devils in Tempe on Monday night.

Who: Arizona (19-2, 9-1) at Arizona State (7-13, 3-7)

Where: Desert Financial Arena, Tempe

When: 7 p.m.

TV: Fox Sports 1

Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Social media: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

Probable starters: Arizona

G Kerr Kriisa (6-3 sophomore)

G Dalen Terry (6-6 sophomore)

F Bennedict Mathurin (6-6 sophomore)

F Azuolas Tubelis (6-11 sophomore)

C Christian Koloko (7-0 junior)

Probable starters: ASU

G Marreon Jackson (6-1 senior)

G DJ Horne (6-1 sophomore)

F Kimani Lawrence (6-6 senior)

F Jalen Graham (6-9 junior)

C Alonzo Gaffney (6-9 junior)

How they match up

The last time: Both Arizona and ASU shot just over 32% from the field, but the Wildcats took 17 more free throws and scored 18 more points at the line in a 67-56 win over ASU on Jan. 29 at McKale Center. Christian Koloko had 12 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Wildcats while Oumar Ballo had 14 points and five rebounds off the bench.

The last time at Tempe: Azuolas Tubelis scooped up a missed shot to the left of the rim by James Akinjo and put it in just before the buzzer to give UA an 84-82 win on Jan. 21, 2021, at Desert Financial Arena. Akinjo, who insisted his shot was a pass even though scorekeepers ruled it a shot, led the Wildcats with 24 points and three assists with 5-for-9 3-point shooting.

Series history: Arizona leads the Sun Devils 156-85 all time and has won the past three games. ASU has won two of the last three games played in Tempe.

What’s new with the Sun Devils: ASU broke a streak of four straight losses in style Saturday, beating UCLA 87-84 in triple overtime at home, giving the then-third-ranked Bruins a second straight loss after UCLA lost 76-66 at Arizona on Thursday. ASU had six players in double figures, with point guard Marreon Jackson scoring 24 points.

On Thursday, ASU was tied with No. 19 USC with a minute to go before USC’s Boogie Ellis hit five free throws and a dunk to give the Trojans a 58-53 win. The Sun Devils are still just 3-7 overall at the halfway mark of Pac-12 play, in ninth place and ahead of only Cal, Utah and Oregon State.

The Sun Devils try to grind out wins with defense and grit, holding Pac-12 teams to 42.6% from the field overall and 30.5% from 3, but can’t shoot well themselves. They remain the worst-shooting Pac-12 team in 3-point percentage (26.1) and free-throw percentage (62.8) and are second-to-worst in two-point percentage (43.8).

ASU also is just 11th in the Pac-12 in defensive rebound percentage (65.2) and 12th in offensive rebounding percentage (22.8).

The Sun Devils vary their starting lineups wildly but have three active big men to turn to, whether in the starting lineup or off the bench, in 6-foot-9 Jalen Graham, 6-9 Alonzo Gaffney and 6-10 Enoch Boakye.

He said it: “They’ve been pretty consistent in what they’re doing. They’ve kind of kept the same defense and are aggressive. They make you shoot contested shots and are very aggressive in the gaps. Offensively (against UCLA) they tried to control the pace of the game. It ended up being a game with very low possessions and I thought Arizona State was very comfortable with it.

“They try to stay between the ball and the basket, and they have the length and the athletes to do it. UCLA is used to creating advantages with their isos but they couldn’t do it.

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“I think the common denominator of those two games (USC and UCLA) and the first game we played against them is Arizona State is playing extremely hard. They’re coming for you. And I thought watching the USC game and the UCLA game, those teams were kind of surprised of how hard and aggressive ASU. That’s a mistake we can’t do.” — UA assistant coach Riccardo “Ricky” Fois, who scouted the Sun Devils.

Key player (Arizona): Bennedict Mathurin

Arizona’s leading scorer is just 1 for 13 from 3-point range over his last three games, missing all eight he took from beyond the arc against ASU on Jan. 29. But even when his long-range shot has been off — or largely unavailable because of the defenses he is facing — Mathurin has been a crafty scorer inside and has often played better on the road.

Key player (ASU): DJ Horne

A streaky but prolific 3-point shooter, Horne made 5 of 8 3s in the first half on Jan. 29 at McKale before the Wildcats found him in the second half and held Horne to 1-8 shooting (0 for 4 from 3). Horne is the Pac-12’s second-leading 3-point maker (2.70), just behind WSU’s Michael Flowers (2.71) and ahead of UA’s Kerr Kriisa (2.55).

Sidelines

Heeke asks students to avoid ‘degrading comments’

After UCLA player Mac Etienne was arrested for spitting at the profanity-jeering Zona Zoo section following UA’s win over UCLA on Thursday at McKale, both Arizona AD Dave Heeke and coach Tommy Lloyd implored the students to keep it clean.

UA police cited Etienne for a misdemeanor assault charge after a video showed him spitting twice toward the crowd on his way off the floor. During the game, “F — You” chants toward UCLA players Tyger Campbell and Johnny Juzang were heard from the UA student section, among others.

“We’re not gonna lower ourselves to the level of degrading comments directed at individuals,” Heeke said. “We can be better than that. We’ll support our team. We’ll make it an intense environment. That was my message to our students.”

Heeke said he messaged all UA students who had tickets for Saturday’s UA-USC game and also spoke to several of them directly when he walked through the crowd during the game. Obscenities were not heard except early in the game, when “F — You Zero” chants broke out after USC guard Boogie Ellie (No. 0) bumped heads with UA’s Dalen Terry.

“We had a couple of small breakdowns today,” Heeke said.

Lloyd said he didn’t know what was said or done at the end of the UCLA game but found it “disappointing probably on both sides” to see what happened.

“We can be rowdy, and we can have a good time. But I don’t think we need to be getting personal with student athletes,” Lloyd said. “I don’t even know if it was — I’m just saying if that happened — and obviously the reaction is disappointing on their end. I think at Arizona our goal should be to be the rowdiest, classiest fan base in the country.”

Heeke indicated he and UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond felt similarly after they discussed the incident.

“Both institutions have addressed it, and we don’t want those types of things to happen,” Heeke said. “We want great atmospheres, high intensity, great competition, and the team that plays the best wins. That’s kind of our focus. We have great fans here. We’re gonna continue to do it and emphasize doing it the right way.”

Busted clipboard ‘allowance’

Lloyd and Warriors coach Steve Kerr might be both known for their easygoing personalities but sometimes, a little edginess can come in handy.

“Steve Kerr told me you get three breaks a year on the clipboard deal,” Lloyd said, after notching what he said was his first-ever broken clipboard, early in UA’s win over USC on Saturday.

“I was just a little frustrated, and I was trying to light a little bit of a fire underneath them because we had that blank look,” Lloyd said. “It was totally unintentional.”

Maybe it helped, though. UA led the Trojans just 29-28 at halftime but went on to win 72-63 … when Lloyd said he was actually calmer.

“I said what I needed to say at halftime and I took a breath,” Lloyd said. “I just wanted to win the game. I didn’t want to be emotional.”

A gamer in more ways than one

Kriisa might have hit only 5 of 27 3-pointers between two games against UCLA and one against ASU but, as fans might have guessed about UA’s swaggy point guard, he indicated confidence was never a problem.

“As you go through a slump, it’s not `I’m going to panic and I’m gonna cry at home,’ “ Kriisa said. “Just take some extra shots, sleep more, play more ‘Fortnite.’ ”

Of course, Kriisa does not lack confidence in that popular video game, either.

“I’m pretty good,” Kriisa said. “Now I’m one of the best in the team. I’ve been working on it.”

Numbers game

8 — ASU’s all-time wins over teams ranked in the Top 3 after beating UCLA 87-84 on Saturday. Over the past decade, the Sun Devils also beat No. 2 Arizona in 203-14, No. 2 Kansas in 2017-18 and No. 1 Kansas in 2018-19.

12 — Arizona’s national rank in offensive efficiency, scoring 116.5 points per 100 possessions. The Wildcats are No. 1 in Pac-12 offensive efficiency at 110.4.

247 — ASU’s national rank in offensive efficiency, scoring just 99.3 points per 100 possessions. Sun Devils are last in Pac-12 games at 85.5.