Shabazz scores 26, San Francisco routs No. 25 Arizona St.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Khalil Shabazz scored 26 points and San Fransico routed No. 25 Arizona State 97-60 on Wednesday night to end the Sun Devils’ nine game winning streak.
The Sun Devils lost for just the second time this season. They were off to their best start since the 2017-18 season and had entered the AP Top 25 poll on Monday for the first time since its No. 23 ranking on December 7, 2020.
But it was all San Francisco on Wednesday.
The Dons opened the game on a 24-2 run, had a 27-point advantage at the break and a 47-point lead with about six minutes left. They finished 32 of 56 (57%) from the floor that included 15 made 3-pointers.
Shabazz made 8 of 16 shots and 5 of 11 from long range. Isaiah Hawthorne added 19 points for San Francisco (10-4). Tyrell Roberts scored 14 points and Marcus Williams and 11.
DJ Horne and Duke Brennan scored 12 points apiece for Arizona State (11-2).
Roberts, Josh Kunen and Zane Meeks sparked the game’s opening surge with a 3-pointer apiece before Frankie Collins’ layup ended the Sun Devils’ drought with 15:31 remaining. It was about seven minutes later before the Sun Devils hit another field goal on Horne’s layup that made it 28-7.
Hawthorne scored 10 points and Shabazz had nine as the Dons built a 50-23 halftime lead on 18-of-35 shooting overall and 9 of 18 from long range.
Horne scored 10 points in the first half, shooting 3 of 7 with a pair of 3-pointers while the rest of the Sun Devils were 4 of 20 overall.
Desmond Cambridge Jr. — who averages 11.5 points and 1.7 steals (tied with Collins for the team lead) — did not play for Arizona State due to a non-COVID illness.
DEFENSE HAS ROUGH NIGHT
Arizona State entered as one of the best defensive teams in the country, ranked fifth in the nation holding opponents to just 35.1% shooting from the field, including six games keeping teams from scoring more than 60 points. The Dons hit 60 points at the 16:34 mark on a Shabazz 3-pointer.
CONSECUTIVE WINS OVER ASU
USF defeated Arizona State, 66-65, in a wire-to-wire thriller in Tempe last December. USF’s last home win over ASU was a 102-90 victory on December 30, 1977. The Dons evened the series 6-6.
UP NEXT
Arizona State hosts rival and fifth-ranked Arizona on New Year’s Eve.
San Francisco faces Hartford at home on Thursday before opening West Coast Conference play at Santa Clara on Dec. 29.
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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
