Arizona State Basketball: 3 takeaways from Sun Devils loss to Saint Mary’s

Arizona State Basketball was dominated by Saint Mary’s on Wednesday, but there were some things we learned from their 40 point loss.

In fact, the final score of the game doesn’t even begin to display just how thoroughly they were outplayed in the game. Alonzo Verge scored 43 of the team’s 56 points and only two other Arizona State Basketball players even managed to score a point. Remy Martin and Rob Edwards were even among the Sun Devils who failed to score. They were outshot, outrebounded, and lost the turnover battle. It was complete domination.

For Saint Mary’s the game was an incredible display of what their team can be when at their best. It may have been Jordan Ford who got the party started with 22 points on 8-8 shooting in the first 11 minutes, but the whole team followed his example. They shot 59.6% from the field and 61.5% from 3 against one of the country’s best 3-point defenses en route to their 40-point win.

The loss dropped Arizona State to 8-3 on the season and likely put their pursuit of a spot in the rankings on hold for now as they’ll need to build themselves back up after such a comprehensive defeat. The win moved Saint Mary’s to 11-2 and should give them a strong argument for a top 25 spot of their own as long as they can get past Nevada on Saturday.

Here are three things ASU can take away from the loss to Saint Mary’s and use to improve ahead of Saturday’s matchup against a strong Creighton team.