Sun Devils Advance to Semi’s in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS – Survive and advance. It’s the simple motto of March basketball. Thursday night Arizona State did what they needed to do in their 83-72 win over UCLA in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament here at the T-Mobile Arena. 

In front of a pro-Arizona State crowd the Sun Devils couldn’t shake the pesky Bruins for the first 16 minutes of the game, but in the final 3:51  of the first half Bobby Hurley’s team went on a 14-0 run including a half court buzzer beater by Kamani Lawerence, giving ASU a 45-29 halftime lead. 

The second half resembled more of open-gym at the local Y, than two teams fighting to get to the Friday night semi-finals. UCLA cut the gap to 59-47 at the 12:00 mark.  but the Sun Devils would pull away and cruise to the win.