Thanks to travel partner ASU, Arizona Wildcats back in Pac-12 driver's seat

First, two days after Arizona outlasted Utah in triple-overtime on Feb. 8 in Salt Lake City, the Sun Devils marched into the Huntsman Center and snapped a five-game losing streak by beating the presumably drained Utes 85-77.

Then ASU coach Bobby Hurley sent UA coach Tommy Lloyd a text message.

“He thanked me for wearing Utah down,” Lloyd said on his radio show the following Monday. “True story.”

On Saturday, Hurley and the Sun Devils paid the Wildcats back.

Two days after No. 21 Washington State beat No. 4 Arizona 77-74, pushing the Cougars a half-game ahead of the Wildcats atop the Pac-12 standings, ASU beat WSU 73-61 Saturday evening in Tempe.

The Sun Devils’ win put Arizona back in solo possession of first place at 12-4, a game ahead of WSU in the loss column.

That gives the Wildcats control of their own destiny during their final two Pac-12 weeks, though the schedule is not to their advantage: Arizona will play three of its final four games on the road, with its only home game against third-place Oregon, while WSU will play all of its final three games at home — against USC, UCLA and Washington. The Cougars own the tiebreaker if they end up tied with Arizona by virtue of winning in both Pullman and Tucson.

The news from Tempe arrived not long after Arizona already left McKale Center on a happy note Saturday, having beaten Washington 91-75 to keep up their perfect record in the next game following a regular-season loss under Lloyd.

“Today it’s a response game,” Lloyd said Saturday. “You just need to get that result.”

They always do. The Wildcats have now played 99 games without back-to-back losses and are 15-0 in the next game after a loss in Lloyd’s nearly three seasons with the Wildcats, winning by double-digits in all but two of those wins.

“Let’s just say that does say a lot about this team’s character because after a loss like we don’t let our last mistake affect our next opportunity,” said center Oumar Ballo. “We always … try to come back even stronger against the next opponent that we get a chance to play against.”

Last season, Arizona even avenged each of its five regular-season losses with a win later over the team that beat them.

But things get a little tricky now for the Wildcats because the Sun Devils’ gift did arrive with a string attached.

That is, Arizona now has to play them. At their place, where the Sun Devils just might be due for more success.

ASU has lost three straight games to Arizona at Desert Financial Arena, though, true to their typically unpredictable ways, the Sun Devils managed to beat Arizona at McKale last season on Desmond Cambridge’s 60-foot buzzer-beater.

All that means despite Arizona’s 105-60 drubbing of ASU on Feb. 17, their rematch Wednesday could be something else entirely.

“We know they’re gonna respond,” Lloyd said Saturday. “They’re a streaky team. The way they play is hard to play against. I’m sure they’re gonna come out spirited, with great effort, and we respect them as a rival.”

On Saturday, ASU held WSU to just 39.3% shooting while the Cougars made just 3 of 18 3-pointers — including none of the seven long-range shots they put up in the second half.

Maybe the Cougars, like the Utes were earlier this month, were a bit worn down after a big game against Arizona two days earlier. But, whatever the case, Hurley said he saw a defensive response in his team he hadn’t seen before.

It was “the best defense we played in the season, in terms of they are a handful around the basket, and they’ve got guys who can shoot, and playmakers,” Hurley said. “It’s one of the great stories in college basketball of what they’ve been able to do … but our defense was up to the challenge.”

Then again, so was Arizona’s on Saturday. The Wildcats held Washington to just 38.2% shooting while leading almost wire-to-wire, determined to put their late-night downer on Thursday behind them.

“You’re fighting to get back on that winning side of the ledger, and so that’s what today came down to,” Lloyd said after Saturday’s game. “Losing games is tough at Arizona. Trust me. I don’t know if it’s tougher on anybody than me. The last 36 hours I haven’t slept much.

“I just want to do great for this team and for this program and for the community. So I’m glad we got back on the winning side of things.”