TEMPE, Arizona — Arizona was dominant in its win over Arizona State to open Pac-12 play earlier this month. There were moments when that was again the case Saturday night at Desert Financial Arena as the Wildcats (13-6, 3-3 Pac-12) used a 22-1 run in the first half to take control of the game.
However, the final few minutes of the first half ended on a positive note for the Sun Devils and that momentum carried the home team to a 66-65 victory over the the Wildcats in Tempe.
Sean Miller's team struggled to stay in front in the second half as ASU slowly chipped away at the lead before ultimately regaining the lead with 4:31 to play on a layup from point guard Remy Martin.
The team's traded blows down the stretch, but ultimately it was the Wildcats who had the final shot after ASU took a one-point lead with about 10 seconds to play. Nico Mannion dished the ball to Josh Green who passed up a 3-pointer and opted for a drive to the basket with UA down just a point, but he ran into contact and was unable to convert.
The loss sealed UA's fourth road loss of the year and prevented the Wildcats from earning a season sweep of ASU. Miller's team has yet to win a true road game this season dropping all three of its Pac-12 contests away from McKale Center so far.
"You can paint the bad picture," Miller said after Saturday's loss when asked about his team's losing streak on the road with two more road games coming up next week. "We're going to the Pacific Northwest and we haven't won on the road and we got two more. I don't have anything positive to say to that."
UA was a bit sloppy from the start of the game with four early turnovers before the first media timeout. Although UA cleaned up its mistakes for a time when it went on that on its big run the mistakes picked up again in the second half. The Wildcats eventually ended up with 18 turnovers leading to 20 points off turnovers for the Sun Devils.
"Some of the turnovers you have to give credit to our opponent, and some of the turnovers I think our starters had 15 of the 18," Miller said. "It's hard to win a game, I don't care what the score was for the first half, but at the end for 40 minutes when your starting group has 15 turnovers and you have 18 as a team – 20 points off those turnovers – that's really hard to overcome."
The Wildcats had to overcome foul trouble for one of their most important players as Mannion, a Phoenix native who helped spark the big run in the first half with his outside shooting, was on the bench more than usual because of fouls. He ended the game with four fouls and he picked up his last one with plenty of time still left on the clock meaning he had to miss some crucial moments.
Arizona feels like it should be able to handle something like that but it wasn't able to do so Saturday night in the loss.
"We got other good guards on our team," senior Dylan Smith said after the loss. "They disrupted us when Nico was in the game as well. We just gotta do a better job taking care of the ball and hopefully we'll get a road win here soon next week."
Miller said his team is not a confident group right now and it is up to him to help change that as the team once again regroups as it prepares to hit the road one more time next week.
"It's about performance," the UA head coach said. "You have to grade our team, me as a coach, you have to grade our players on how we do not how we're supposed to be. Who we're supposed to be and who we are, this is about who we are. When you show up on the road you either play with confidence and play well or you don't.
"... I wish I could help our guys break through. You know I'm the coach and it really starts with me. I'm gonna try even harder than I am to give those guys as much confidence as I can and to see if we can break through one day."
