Sun Devils Establish Winning Streak After Defeating Creighton in Road Upset

The Arizona State Sun Devils grinded out a tough victory over the Creighton Bluejays on Tuesday night for a third straight win.

Searching for a third consecutive win, the Arizona State Sun Devils traveled to Omaha, Neb., to battle the Creighton Bluejays on Tuesday night. 

Arizona State, considered underdogs on SISportsbook.com, went on the road and successfully captured their third consecutive victory, 58-57.

Creighton, 8-2 heading into the game, provided another tough test for the Sun Devils, as head coach Bobby Hurley hoped a strong early season gauntlet would pay off down the stretch. 

Nearly a week removed from an embarrassing loss to Washington State, fans in Tempe simply hoped for improvement since that night. 

After stringing together two wins and taking another tournament team in Creighton down to the wire, the Sun Devils are showing signs of growth despite missing their best player, forward Marcus Bagley. 

That experience finally saw dividends paid in their efforts against the Bluejays.

Since 2019, the Sun Devils have now won 18 games decided by five points or fewer, tying Western Kentucky for the most in the NCAA.

Here's how the action panned out:

First-Half Recap

Arizona State Starters
G Marreon Jackson
G DJ Horne
G Luther Muhammad
F Kimani Lawrence
F Jalen Graham

The game started with a bang for the Bluejays, who immediately converted a wide- open opportunity from the tip-off to a dunk to go up 2-0 in the blink of an eye. 

However, Arizona State didn't flinch, as the Sun Devils would kept pace with Creighton at 15-15 in the early going before taking their first lead before a Jackson three-pointer created ASU's first lead of the game with 9:55 left in the first half. 

Creighton quickly regained the lead and never looked back in the first half, going up at the break 32-26 after the Sun Devils led for a mere 33 seconds. 

It wasn't a particularly strong shooting effort from either team, as both shot below 39%, combining for 5-of-21 shooting from beyond the arc. 

Horne was the only player for Arizona State to reach five points in the first half, while Creighton had five score at least that many. 

Second-Half Recap

The final 20 minutes was a game of runs, as the Sun Devils quickly cut Creighton's lead to two points only just two minutes into the second half. However, the Bluejays quickly got their lead back up to eight points thanks to an 8-2 run. 

ASU, with layups by Graham, Alonzo Gaffney and Jay Heath had a 6-0 run and again draw close to Creighton. 

That's when Jackson decided to take control of the game, scoring seven straight points for the Sun Devils and giving ASU their first lead of the second half, 45-44 with 11:09 left in the game. 

An Enoch Boakye bucket led to a 9-0 run by ASU as the Bluejays went more than three minutes without a bucket, making only 3-of-12 shots that would grow into a 12-2 run in a five-minute stretch.

With 7:23 left in the game, Arizona State carried a 50-46 lead into the media timeout. 

However, the Bluejays tied the game at 50-50 after the Sun Devils endured a scoring drought of their own. 

At the under-four minute media timeout, the Sun Devils had a 52-50 lead, as the two teams shot a combined 2-of-14 from the floor in a four-minute stretch. 

Both teams swaped dunks, as Arizona State led 56-54 with under two minutes remaining. Two free throws from Ryan Nembhard tied the game at 56 with 1:09 left. 

With 6.8 seconds remaining and leading by only one, Heath went to the line after shooting 91% from the stripe all season with the potential of putting ASU up by three points. 

Heath left the one-and-one shot short, as Creighton got the rebound and called its final timeout with 6.4 seconds remaining. 

A Nembhard shot fell short at the buzzer out of the inbound and the Sun Devils escaped with the 58-57 upset.

Arizona State Leaders

Points: Horne (12)
Rebounds: Heath (7)
Assists: Jackson (4)

What's Next

After achieving their third straight win, the Sun Devils return home to Desert Financial Arena on Sunday, Dec. 19 at 4 pm Arizona time to take on the San Francisco Dons, who are currently 10-0 on the season.