Arizona Recovers in Time for 83-75 Victory

Salim Stoudamire could see what was happening--caught up in their dislike of Arizona State, his Arizona teammates were letting the game slip away.

The freshman came to the rescue, scoring the last two baskets for the 14th-ranked Wildcats as they held on to beat the Sun Devils, 83-75, Wednesday night, four weeks after they were stunned by a loss in Tempe.

Stoudamire, who had 24 points, said a scuffle that resulted in the ejection of an Arizona State player took the Wildcats out of their game.

“I think we were going down and trying to get them back after what happened instead of going down and playing our game,” he said. “In the first half, we were tough, and then we got into that altercation, and I thought we tried to focus on getting them back instead of winning the game.”

Stoudamire made a three-point basket that made the score 72-66 with 4:28 left, and tipped in a miss by Luke Walton with 41 seconds to play that gave the Wildcats a 78-73 lead.

The Wildcats rode out the victory at the free-throw line, glad to be there after allowing Arizona State to recover from an 18-point deficit in the first half.

Arizona, 18-8 overall and 11-5 in the Pac-10, had lost to UCLA and USC in Los Angeles over the weekend and was trying to avoid losing three consecutive regular-season games for the first time since 1983-84.

“This definitely was a battle,” Coach Lute Olson said. “I give ASU a lot of credit for the way they battled. ASU is a tough team, and they work hard and defend hard. They make it difficult for teams to run their plays.”

Rick Anderson scored 17 points and Jason Gardner had 16 for Arizona.

Chad Prewitt had 15 points for the Sun Devils (14-11, 7-9).

With 6:01 left in the first half, Arizona State’s Kyle Dodd, a reserve guard, piled on while teammate Chris Osborne and Walton were wrestling for a rebound.

After a scuffle, Dodd was ejected, and Stoudamire made two technical free throws for a 39-21 lead, Arizona’s biggest of the game.