By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Wednesday, February 26, 2014

TEMPE, Ariz. – Arizona State used its mastery of the 3-point shot to near perfection Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Arena, as the Sun Devils earned a much-needed 76-64 Pac-12 men’s basketball win over Stanford.

Stanford never led in the game. It was Arizona State’s second wire-to-wire victory of the season, the other coming over DePaul on Dec. 6.

Jahii Carson led all scorers with 26 points, hitting 8 of 11 from the floor – including 2 of 3 3-pointers. Jermaine Marshall added 16 points, while Shaquielle McKissic added 10. McKissic and Carson each had four assists for ASU.

Addressing the media afterwards, Arizona State Coach Herb Sendeck laughed when the phrase “must win” was uttered.

“You guys are always the ones who tell me it’s a must win,” Sendeck said. “It will be midnight in about 30 minutes, and then we can talk about another must win (Saturday afternoon against California).”

The 9 p.m. MST tipoff time to accommodate ESPNU did little to help Stanford overcome a sluggish start. The Sun Devils (20-8 overall, 9-6 Pac-12) opened the game with an 8-0 run on 3-pointers by Shaquielle McKissic and Jahii Carlson, followed by an Eric Jacobsen layup, prompting Stanford (18-9, 9-6) to burn a timeout at 18:37 of the first half.

Arizona State hit 7 of 11 from behind the 3-point arc in the first half, and 10 of 19 on the night, including two each from Carson, Marshall, Bo Barnes and Jonathan Gilling.

“That’s what they do,” Cardinal Coach Johnny Dawkins said. “They’re a very good 3-point shooting team. They didn’t shoot it that well on the road, but they’re back home and feel better, they’re confident, and they shot the 3 well.

“It was definitely a bad start for us, but give Arizona State credit for playing a real good game,” Dawkins added. “I wish we could have played a better one ourselves. We didn’t value the basketball and turned it over too many times.”

Though the Cardinal would occasionally claw back, they sabotaged themselves by committing 10 turnovers in the first half, 15 total.

“We wanted to come in and limit their shooters, and I think everyone in their starting five except the two bigs shot 3’s,” Stanford guard Anthony Brown, who led the Cardinal with 21 points, said. “You’re not going to win when everybody is shooting 3’s.”

”We had a rough start with all those turnovers in the first half, which is not the recipe for winning,” Brown said. “Our defense wasn’t there tonight and that carried over to our offense with those turnovers. And (ASU) played much harder than we did in the first 20 minutes.

“We finally picked it up, but by that time it was too late.”

Dwight Powell sank a pair of free throws midway through the first half, cutting the Cardinal deficit to 14-10. But that was as close as Stanford would get, as the Sun Devils used 3-pointers from Marshall, Gilling and Caleen Robinson to spark a 25-14 run over the closing minutes of the first half.

“When you’re in a game like that and (ASU) is hitting on all cylinders, you have to hit your free throws and you have to finish and take care of the basketball,” Dawkins said. “I don’t think we did well in any of those categories.

“I thought we had a few good stops defensively. If you eliminate the 21 points (ASU) scored off of turnovers, it’s a different ballgame.”

ASU’s biggest lead came on a pair of free throws by Carson with 5:59 remaining, putting the Devils up 64-46. Stanford got no closer than nine points in the second half, when the Cardinal pulled to within 44-35 on a free throw by Brown at 15:31.

Chasson Randle and Dwight Powell scored 21 and 17 points, respectively, for the Cardinal. Josh Huestis pulled down a game-high eight boards as Stanford outrebounded ASU 33-30.

“Arizona State changed up the way they played in terms of not letting us post up,” Brown said. “Even when we don’t shoot well, we usually try to back it up with defense and keep ourselves in the game. If we don’t shoot well, we try to hit the offensive glass. We were outrebounded, and with our size, that adds to the recipe for losing.

“I still think about the turnovers, because most of them were unforced.”

Because of the Wednesday-Sunday schedule gap, the Cardinal flew back to the Bay Area and will fly out again this weekend for the trip to Tucson to face Arizona.

“We realize it’s a big game for us,” Dawkins said. “The Pac-12 is tough top to bottom and you have to go out there and compete. That’s what we have to do.”

“For us, we’ve lost every first game on the road,” Brown said. “We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and get ready for a fight against Arizona. That’s as simple as we can put it.”

(TAGS: Stanford,Arizona State,Pac-12,men’s basketball,Daniel Dullum)