Finally, Arizona State's Potential Shines When Needed Most

Arizona State played its best basketball of the season at the right time against UCLA, potentially changing the tide of their season.

Three hours and three overtimes after the tip, the departing scenes of Saturday night was a flooded court of maroon at Desert Financial Arena after Arizona State's 87-84 victory over the No. 3-ranked UCLA Bruins. 

Simply put, this wasn't supposed to happen. 

The Bruins, despite dropping only their third game of the season to Arizona on Thursday, rolled into town as double-digit favorites with an 88.4% chance to win in ESPN's Basketball Power Index. 

UCLA looked for a major bounce-back performance in Pac-12 play, yet it was the Sun Devils that who looked like the better of the two teams on Saturday. 

According to ESPN, ASU became the second unranked team in D-I history to beat an AP top-five team in three or more overtimes, following in the footsteps of Canisius over No. 2 North Carolina State in 1956 in four overtimes. 

There were plenty of opportunities for UCLA to win the game in nearly every period, yet true to the style of head coach Bobby Hurley, Arizona State pushed through adversity. 

"It's very rewarding," said Hurley on ESPN's broadcast following the game. 

"It's been tough, but our guys persevered and they've been playing really good basketball the last two weeks. So it's exciting that they could see that hard work pay some dividends with a big victory." 

The hero for ASU was again Jalen Graham, who has come up big for the Sun Devils in recent games. Graham tallied Arizona State's final two field goals to put the dagger in UCLA's hopes of avoiding back-to-back losses. 

Marreon Jackson finished the night with 24 points, undoubtedly his best performance of the season while leading an ASU team that had six players finish in double-digit scoring.

"Marreon, I thought, was the story for us, a breakout kind of game, offensively made some big shots," Hurley said. "But JG (Graham), the last two weeks has been off the charts."

Previously, Arizona State was 0-8 in the last eight games played against ranked opponents. 

The Sun Devils have appeared very close to seeing their potential shine on the scorebaord when it's all said and done. Thursday's loss against No. 19 USC was just one of many recent games that ASU was merely a few plays away from changing the outcome. 

Hurley said Arizona State's win on Saturday could turn the tide the rest of the way. 

He said, "It's big for our season. Because now, we looked really good at Arizona, and again against USC the other night, so to see us find a way to win now adds to the fact that we're playing better basketball.". 

ASU ranked near the bottom entering the game in almost every Pac-12 category for shooting, but out-shot UCLA in field-goal percentage (40.3 to 37.2) and three-point shooting (34.4% to 22.7).

All the right shots fell for Arizona State on a night where they needed to, while the Sun Devils were able to control the post. For a UCLA team that touted a very deep bench, it was ASU that outscored the Bruins in bench points by a 27-8 margin. 

"We believed they could do it, they've done it all summer and in the fall, it just hasn't all come together, but it's starting to now," said Hurley. 

"We can't wait to see what this building looks like come Monday night." 

Monday night features another large battle for Arizona State, as rival Arizona makes the trip to Tempe after defeating the Sun Devils earlier this season. 

There's a short turnaround for ASU (as there is for Arizona, which defeated USC Saturday), so no time will be spared for the Sun Devils to let the upset over UCLA soak in for very long. 

Everything perfectly clicked Saturday night for an Arizona State team that just couldn't quite get get luck on their side, whether it be Marcus Bagley's injury that's kept him out since Nov. 15 or the wild amount of games canceled or postponed due to COVID from both opposing teams and their own program. 

Momentum has been hard to catch for ASU, and now the Sun Devils have an opportunity to grab the lightning bolt right out of the bottle. 

Under Hurley, there's work to do, and as he once said, "If anyone wants to win here (Arizona), they better go to f****** Tucson."

See you Monday, Sun Devils faithful.