At Arizona State, Baylor Aims for their First Real Road Victory

When Baylor plays Arizona State in Big 12 play on Saturday night in Tempe, Arizona, it hopes to record its sixth win in seven games. With losses to then-No. 6 Gonzaga, then-No. 25 UConn, and then-No. 3 Iowa State, the Bears (10-4, 2-1 Big 12) are 0-3 on the road this season. Baylor pushed two-time defending national champion UConn hard before falling 76-72, but they were blown out in two of the games, losing to Gonzaga by 38 and Iowa State by 19. The Bears just defeated Cincinnati 68-48 at home on Tuesday. Baylor restricted the Bearcats to 34.7 percent from the field and shot 50 percent.

For his seventh double-double of the season, Norchad Omier scored 18 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, making 7 of 9 shots. 18 points were added by VJ Edgecombe. Jason Asemota, a highly touted freshman forward, was able to play 15 minutes due to the 20-point victory margin. Four rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one blocked shot were his final stats. In just 75 minutes this season, Asemota has scored 23 points, pulled down 26 rebounds, snatched six steals, and blocked two shots. “I’m 6-9, long arms, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be a good defender,” Asemota explained. “That’s what they’ve been telling me all year.” With averages of 15.7 points and 10.8 rebounds, Omier leads Baylor. Against the Bears, Arizona State (10-4, 1-2) is looking to snap a five-game losing run.

The 1988–89 season was the last time the Sun Devils defeated Baylor. The Bears are ahead 6-2 in the series. Following Wednesday’s 74-55 loss to No. 11 Kansas, Arizona State has now dropped three of its last five games overall. The Sun Devils were outscored 38–13 in the second half after leading by six at the break. Coach Bobby Hurley of Arizona State explained, “They really turned up their pressure on defence with their press and that cost us some baskets and the game started getting away from us quickly.” “We weren’t able to stop the bleeding at any point with trying to get an easy basket.” The Sun Devils hope to have leading scorer Joson Sanon back after he missed the last two games with an ankle injury.

Sanon leads the squad with 28 3-pointers and averages 13.5 points per game. With 13.1 points per game, Basheer Jihad is Arizona State’s second-leading scorer. With an average of 9.4 points per game, forward Jayden Quaintance leads the Sun Devils in rebounds (8.4 per game), steals (20), and blocked shots (42). Quaintance is on track to surpass Mario Bennett’s 1991–92 freshman record of 55 blocked shots.