TUCSON–The Arizona State Sun Devils took a business trip to Tucson and Saturday afternoon walked away with an NCAA Tournament punctuation mark surging ahead and eventually finishing off the Arizona Wildcats 72-64 at the McKale Center.
Coming off a 31-point effort in the Devils (21-9, 12-6) earlier win over UofA back in late January, point guard Remy Martin was once again the star of the show scoring 27 points, while also grabbing a team-high eight rebounds to go along with seven assists.
“He finds a way to make big shots,” head coach Bobby Hurley said of Martin. “He’s mixing his game up well. He’s finding his teammates. He’s playing at an elite level.”
Martin was joined in double figures by freshman guard Luguentz Dort (15 points, three assists) as well as senior forward Zylan Cheatham (13 points, six rebounds).
“Right now we’re in a groove, we’re playing well,” Martin said. “We’re a great team. We have a lot of talent.”
ASU was benefitted by Arizona (17-14, 8-10) foul problems, most notably guards Justin Coleman and Brandon Williams who both fouled out in the second half.
The ‘Cats were led in scoring by forward Ryan Luther and guard Branson Randolph who each scored 12. Center Chase Jeter added 11 off the bench.
The Sun Devils will open as the two-seed in the Pac-12 tournament on Thursday. Arizona will play USC in a first-round match-up on Wednesday.
It was ASU’s first regular season sweep of their in-state rivals since the 2007-08 season.
