Wildcats Hold Off Arizona State 75-70 to Claim ASU Sleep America Title
12/22/2006 10:03:32 AM | Men's Basketball
Recap | Box Score
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Davidson point guard Jason Richards poured in a career-high 25 points to lead the Wildcats to a 75-70 victory over host Arizona State in the championship game of the 40th ASU?Sleep America Holiday Classic. The win was Davidson's seventh straight and first against a current Pac-10 squad as it improved to 11-3. The Sun Devils, who had won 29 of the first 39 ASU Classics they had hosted, fell to 6-5 on the season.
Richards, who scored 18 points and dished out eight assists the day before, was named the tournament MVP. The junior connected on 8-of-13 shots from the floor, including 4-of-5 from behind the arc, while playing all but one minute in the game. Junior forward Thomas Sander contributed 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting and a pair of treys, and freshman Stephen Curry tallied 10, the 13th time in 14 collegiate games he has scored in double figures.
The Wildcats led by as many as 20 points with eight minutes to play before Arizona State began a frantic comeback. With Serge Angounou providing a pair of threes and a layup in a 12-0 run spanning just two minutes, the Sun Devils cut the deficit to eight at 65-57. Richards ended the run with a pair of free throws, but Christian Polk drained a three and Angounou hit two foul shots to get within five.
Richards answered again with a three-pointer from the left corner, and Davidson maintained an eight-point edge with just more than two minutes left in the contest. Arizona State got as close as three at 73-70 with just 25 seconds left when a Derek Glasser layup glanced off the top of the backboard and through the hoop. The Wildcats managed to hit just 3-of-8 free throws in the final minute, but it was enough to hold off the hard-charging Sun Devils.
Going into the second half, Davidson enjoyed a five-point lead, then quickly hit three buckets -- one a two-hand jam by junior Boris Meno -- to build a double-digit advantage. The spurt to start the half became 16-4 as the 'Cats increased the lead to 17, 52-35.
During the run Curry, averaging more than 20 points a game, picked up his fourth foul with 16:44 still to play, relegating him to the bench until five minutes remained. Yet Davidson continued to increase the lead until it reached 20 at 65-45, capped by a steal and fast break layup by freshman William Archambault.
Arizona State was able to stay in the game in the opening stanza due to superior rebounding. As a team, Davidson hauled in just seven rebounds over the first 20 minutes while the Sun Devils grabbed 23. But the Wildcats shot 52 percent (13-of-25) from the floor and 55.6 percent?(5-of-9) from downtown, and held ASU?to just 37 percent from the field (10-of-27).
The rebounds evened out for the second half, but the Sun Devils still had 15 more boards for the game against a Davidson team that entered the contest with a rebound margin of plus-10. Besides solid shooting, the Wildcats also took care of the ball, turning it over a season-low eight times.
Arizona State got 17 points and 12 rebounds from both Angounou and Jeff Pendergraph, plus 16 points from Christian Polk. As a team, the Sun Devils hit just 23-of-57 (.404) field goals and 5-of-20 (.250) threes.
Along with tournament MVP?Richards, Sander and Meno were both named to the all-tournament squad as they scored 27 and 25 points, respectively, and Meno snared 21 rebounds in the two games. Others on the team were Pendergraph and Angounou, as well as Ohio's Whitney Davis.
Davidson has a week off from competition for the Christmas holiday before returning to campus to host Western Michigan on Dec. 30 at 7 p.m. Arizona State opens up conference play when Stanford comes to town on Dec. 28 for a game at 7 p.m. (MST).
