The Arizona State Sun Devils looked like a team who played Wednesday night, traveled overnight into Thursday morning and faced a fresh, talented team Friday afternoon in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Bobby Hurley’s old school, the Buffalo Bulls, used a 14-2 run midway through the first half and coasted to a 91-74 victory.
The six-seeded Bulls led by 13 points at halftime and were aided by nine offensive rebounds, which resulted in 11 second-chance points. Nick Perkins and Jeremy Harris each scored 21 points for BU.
The Devils were paced by front-court starters Zylan Cheatham (22 points, eight rebounds) and Romello White (12 points) but the high-scoring backcourt of Remy Martin, Rob Edwards and Lu Dort struggled (combined 7-29, 1-15 three’s combined) as ASU was simply beaten by a better team. White left midway through the second half after taking an elbow to the head and did not return.
Buffalo (32-3), who dominated in bench points and three-point shooting against the road-weary Devils, will face third-seeded Texas Tech, the Big-12 regular season co-champion, on Sunday.
ASU finishes their season 23-11.
