Toreros Fall to ASU in Overtime

It took an overtime for Arizona State or University of San Diego to break 50 points. And when Reed Watson’s eight-foot leaning jumper with three seconds left sent the game into overtime, referee Willis McJunkin could be heard muttering, “It figures.”

But somebody had to win it. And finally, ASU went out and literally snatched the nonconference game from USD, 59-56, Saturday night in front of 7,858 at ASU’s Activity Center.

The loss ended a five-game winning streak for the Toreros (8-4) and extended ASU’s winning streak to five.

For the game, ASU shot only 39% from the field and committed 16 turnovers. USD shot 36% and had 19 turnovers.

“We’ll take it, ASU Coach Bill Frieder said. “We weren’t very sterling.”

ASU (9-3) controlled the boards most of the game, but the Sun Devils owned them in overtime. They grabbed three offensive rebounds and turned them into five points in the extra period. The Toreros were outrebounded for the game, 47-31.

“You’re taught to block out, but they have such good athletes that they were just jumping over us,” said USD forward Kelvin Woods, who had 17 points but grabbed only one rebound, four below his average.

Still, the Toreros had plenty of chances to beat ASU, which began the season ranked in the top 25. They led, 47-43, with 1 minute 32 seconds left in regulation after Wayman Strickland drove the baseline and hit an easy layup. But Jamal Faulkner, who led ASU with 17 points, hit a three-pointer with 1:15 left cut the lead to one.

USD followed with a turnover. ASU’s Stevin Smith came down and badly missed a three-pointer, and the Sun Devils’ Dwayne Fontana badly missed a follow-up layup, but the ball went out off an USD player with 21 seconds left.

Faulkner then launched a three-pointer with 12 seconds left that clanked off the backboard, but the officials called a foul on USD’s Gylan Dottin--giving Faulkner three free throws.

Did Dottin foul Faulkner?

“I tried to jump by the man,” Dottin said. “From the angle the referee had, it might have looked like I touched him, but I didn’t. But hey, they made the call. You can’t argue with it.”

Watson wasn’t as diplomatic.

“They kind of got the ace in the hole with the refs,” Watson said. “I kind of say that out of anger, but they might as well have handed it to them. (Dottin) flew by the man. He didn’t touch him.”

Faulkner converted all three free throws to give ASU a 49-47 lead. But Watson tied it with his jumper.

USD took a 27-25 lead at halftime, but the Toreros had nothing to be proud of. Both teams had trouble with the fundamentals--running their offense, shooting, dribbling and passing.

There was a three-minute stretch midway through the half during which neither team scored a point. USD held a 17-12 lead with 9:54 left after Woods hit a layup and made a free throw, but the Toreros went 4:34 before scoring their next point on Watson’s follow shot.

In that span, the Toreros had four turnovers and four missed shots. Fortunately for the Toreros, ASU only slightly capitalized--scoring nine points to take a 21-17 lead.

“Nobody could get anything established,” USD Coach Hank Egan said. “You thought maybe you make a couple runs and things would loosen up, but it was always close.”

In the half, ASU turned over the ball 13 times and shot 40% (10 of 25). USD turned it over nine times and shot 42.3% (11 of 26).

ASU took a 53-49 lead in overtime, but Woods scored three of the next four points on free throws to cut the lead to 54-52 with 1:04 left. Fontana missed two free throws, but the Sun Devils’ Lester Neal, a 6-6 center, rose above two USD players and tapped the ball out to Lynn Collins.

USD guard Geoff Probst fouled Collins and he sank two free throws to give ASU a 56-52 lead with 39 seconds left. USD had a chance to tie with 14 seconds left, but Strickland’s three-pointer missed and Neal grabbed the rebound. Neal, a junior college transfer from Ventura College, finished with 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

Watson, who had 11 points and four rebounds, was the only other Torero in double figures. He said the close loss is hard to take, but not because it came at the hands of ASU, which advanced to the second round of last year’s NCAA tournament.

“It’s frustrating, knowing that we had them, but I don’t know if it’s the ASU thing so much,” said Watson, who attended nearby Gilbert High and Mesa Community College. “I grew up here and there’s not a whole lot of mystique in ASU basketball to me. I don’t that really intimidated us too much. They have some studs. I don’t know but they didn’t really impress me too much tonight.”