National Tournament – 2nd Round
7 seeded Arizona St.
vs 2 seeded #6 Maryland
This was a game that our Sun Devils came into as 7 point
underdogs against a heavily matched opponent out of the ACC. It turned out to be much closer than I ever
would have predicted and the guys were aiming to impress.
It was a knock down, drag out battle through the first half
with ASU jumping ahead early (10-8) and Maryland reclaiming the lead but never being
able to build it too large. Kenneth Brown made 3 straight free throws in the
final minute of the half to cut the halftime deficit to 1-point as the teams
went into the locker room with the score 34-33 in favor of Maryland.
This round, the 2nd half started much the opposite
of round 1. This time it was ASU that
struggled to find the basket while also struggling to stop their opponents from
doing what they wanted. Over the course
of the opening 6 minutes of the half, Maryland went on a 15-3 run to build
their lead to 49-36. Both teams traded
blows over the next 8 minutes until Maryland was able to build their largest
lead of the night at 64-48 with 6:42 remaining in the game. At this point I was convinced that they were
going to just run away with it and their superior talent would show through,
but the guys didn’t back down and answered with a 16-2 run of their own (over
the span of 3:30) cutting the one-time 16 point lead down to 2 at 66-64. Both
teams traded scores, with ASU never being able to reclaim the lead. Kenneth Brown hit a 3 with 14 seconds
remaining to tighten the game to 75-74 in favor of Maryland who proceeded to
make 1 out of 2 from the line so with under 10 seconds left, ASU had a chance
to tie or take the lead. Kenneth Brown
had a clean look from the left wing that sadly couldn’t find the net with 6
seconds left and with that, the dreams of an upset went by the wayside. The
final score was Maryland 78 and Arizona State 74.
1st 2nd Final
Arizona St 33 41 74
Maryland 34 44 78
Top Performers
Arizona St: Kenneth Brown 18 pts, 2 rebounds, 2 assists
Maryland: Mark Ashcraft 15 pts, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks
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