Azuolas Tubelis' buzzer-beater gives Arizona 84-82 win over ASU in Tempe

But only one thing mattered Thursday for the Arizona Wildcats: The ball went in somehow just before the buzzer, leaving Akinjo’s hands in 3-point range before Azuolas Tubelis scooped it up near the left side of the basket and elevated to put it in, giving the Wildcats an 84-82 win over ASU at Desert Financial Arena.

“If it was a pass, it was one heck of a pass,” UA coach Sean Miller said, with a slight grin. “If it was a shot, it was still one heck of a pass.”

AZUOLAS TUBELIS FOR THE WIN! Arizona beats ASU 84-82(Via ESPN) pic.twitter.com/iQqsPMTE7i

— The Wildcaster (@TheWildcaster) January 22, 2021

The bottom line, Miller said, is that the Wildcats wanted to get the ball in Akinjo’s hands at the end, and why not? The Georgetown transfer leads the Wildcats in scoring and assists, and he had already poured in 24 points before Tubelis blocked a layup attempt by ASU’s Remy Martin on the other end to give the Wildcats a chance to win the game.

“You want a shot. And if you get a second shot that’s even better,” Miller said. “To have the ball in James’ hands…it’s letting a player make a play. We trust James.”

The Wildcats had nine seconds after Tubelis’ block, and Akinjo looked up at the clock as he raced toward the 3-point line.

Four seconds remained.

“I saw Azuolas running by himself so I tried to make a good move,” Akinjo said, adding later: “It was a lob. An alley-oop to Azuolas.”

The Wildcats swarmed Tubelis after the alley-oop/putback/whatever-you-want-to-call it and loudly whooped in an arena that actually had picked up a fair amount of crowd noise from a small group of ASU family members and staffers who cheered on the Sun Devils’ comeback from a game they trailed by up to 11 in the first half.

“I feel amazing because it’s my first game-winner,” Tubelis said. “I saw that the ball was going short so I just caught it and finished.”

It was a triumphant end to an evening in which Tubelis initially struggled, having gone scoreless in the first half while missing all four shots he took and having to deal with ASU’s perimeter oriented forwards.

Tubelis credited his teammates for continuing to look for him but Miller credited Tubelis’ resiliency.

“Azuolas was not himself in the first half and I think some of that you have to credit ASU,” Miller said. “They’re an athletic, quick, fullcourt team. The game is a little bit different playing them because the tempo of the game is really up and it might have caught Azuolas by surprise, even though we’ve tried to prepare him for what was to come.”

Tubelis finished with eight points and seven rebounds, while Akinjo had his 24 points on 8 for 17 shooting overall and 5 for 9 3-point shooting. Dalen Terry, returning to his Tempe hometown, and Bennedict Mathurin each had 13.

“Dalen was the unsung hero,” Miller said of Terry, who hit all 3 3-pointers he took Thursday.

The Wildcats shot 47.5% overall but took 12 fewer free throws than ASU, which consequently scored six more points from the line than UA did to help make its near-comeback.

Down by up to 11 in the first half and four at halftime, ASU led 82-77 entering the final two minutes but a 3-pointer from Akinjo and two free throws from Terrell Brown tied it entering the final minutes. ASU’s Alonzo Verge then missed a jumper but the Wildcats couldn’t capitalize on it after Tubelis was called for an offensive foul with 32 seconds left, giving the Sun Devils the ball back.

But after Tubelis stopped Martin on the other end, Akinjo and Tubelis had time to work it out somehow for the buzzer beating shot.

The win moved Arizona to 11-3 overall and 5-3 in the Pac-12 while ASU dropped to 4-7 and 1-4. The intrastate rivals will meet again Monday at McKale Center, in a game the Pac-12 moved up from March 6 in order to keep the last week of the regular season open for makeup games.

Picked to finish second in the Pac-12’s official preseason poll, the Sun Devils were in a place of desperation entering Thursday’s game, having lost four in a row while four games in the past month were postponed because of COVID issues. They had also been without Martin, who missed two games while attending a family funeral, and center Jalen Graham, who was out with mononucleosis.

But Martin returned last Saturday at Oregon State and Graham returned Thursday, giving the Sun Devils a nearly full complement of players this time.

Martin, who scored 24 points to lead ASU back from a 22-point deficit to win last season at Desert Financial Arena, popped up again more and more in the second half Thursday.

After Mathurin tied the game at 69 on a layup with 5:48 let, the Sun Devils scored seven straight points on four more free throws and a 3-pointer from Martin, giving them their biggest lead of the game.

Over the first 12 minutes, UA lost its four-point halftime lead by allowing ASU to shoot 10 free throws, and making eight of them. The Sun Devils first took a brief 45-43 lead five minutes into the half on a dunk from Chris Osten, and later returned from UA’s 56-50 lead by ripping off seven straight points that were capped by a 3-pointer from Josh Christopher that made it 57-56 with 10:15 left in the half.

But ASU never could keep the momentum going enough to keep the Wildcats away for long, and it cost the Sun Devils in the final minute.

“We’re thrilled,” Miller said. “It’s the fun part of coaching when you can win a game like that. It’s not very fun when you don’t. We’re going to enjoy our ride to Tucson and hopefully get ready to play them again.”