TEMPE — Arizona State men’s basketball played from behind while shorthanded for much of Saturday’s contest, but it played with the right energy in the right moments to come away with an 87-84 win over Kansas State.
Pig Johnson had half of ASU’s 16 points in the first 6:42 of the second half, and his transition score on the back end of that tied up the game for the first time in the half.
But when he got his fourth foul and had to come out, ASU (10-6, 1-2) lost the offensive momentum it had behind Johnson.
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Kansas State (9-7, 0-3) kept up its hot 3-point shooting — which included Abdi Bashir Jr.’s 22 points on 6-for-12 from 3 — to remain ahead, but some fouls then worked in ASU’s favor to slow down the Wildcats’ rhythm.
Sun Devil bigs went inside, where it seemed only Johnson had found success earlier, to work a 10-3 run and earn a two-point lead with 7:52 remaining.
From there, ASU was the more physical team and forced more turnovers to use the transition element more to its advantage.
It also did well to fix turnover issues that plagued it early (seven assists to 10 turnovers as a team in first half, 1-5 for Moe Odum) by dishing out seven assists to five turnovers in the second (3-2 for Odum).
A lob from Johnson to Massamba Diop capped off an 18-3 run that saw the Sun Devils take a nine-point lead with 4:21 left.
THROW IT DOWN MASSAMBA DIOP ?
? Peacock pic.twitter.com/MRn6VpmG6q
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) January 10, 2026
Kansas State scrapped to get in position for a made prayer to make it a one-point game with five seconds left, but Odum’s free throws sealed the win.
The win marked the first time they won the rebounding battle (48-34) since the Dec. 13 win over Santa Clara (29-21).
ASU continued to slog through a shooting slump that’s been ongoing since the Dec. 17 loss at UCLA, as it’s now hit just 31% over its last five games.
Noah Meeusen had been in his own personal slump, missing 12 straight 3s over 2.5 games before breaking the drought early in the second half on a shot that brought ASU within one. He shot 44.4% from 3 over his first 10 games.
Wednesday’s loss at BYU was the first time since Nov. 24 that Massamba Diop did not block a shot following an eight-game stretch where he averaged 2.3 rejections per game. He had five on Saturday, all in the first half.
ASU hit hard by injury bug
The list of injured Sun Devils has grown to nearly half the roster, as ASU missed Bryce Ford (hip), Marcus Adams Jr. (back) and Kash Polk (arm), in addition to Vijay Wallace (season-ending ankle injury preseason) and Adante’ Holiman (hasn’t played yet due to elbow).
That doesn’t include two big men, Dame Salane and Jovan Icitovic, who the team plans to redshirt.
It left a starting lineup of Odum, Johnson, Allen Mukeba, Santiago Trouet and Diop with Meeusen, Andrija Grbovic and Trevor Best as the only scholarship players available off the bench.
Health issues appeared to get worse when Mukeba exited after a hard fall about midway through the first half, but he was back in the game about three minutes later.
ASU breaking losing streak helps its NCAA Tournament hopes
ASU entered on a four-game skid after starting 9-2, with the first losses both being Quad 1 (USC in Maui championship, then-No. 19 Gonzaga at home).
Since the surprise start — which included four Quad 2 wins — ASU has lost at UCLA (Quad 1), vs. Oregon State (Quad 4), vs. Colorado (Quad 2) and at No. 9 BYU (Quad 1) before notching another Quad 2 win on Saturday.
Out of the Sun Devils’ 15 remaining regular-season games, 10 are currently Quad 1 games, one is Quad 2 and four are Quad 3.
Because ASU is lacking a signature win to this point (best wins have been on neutral court against NET Nos. 57 Santa Clara, 59 Oklahoma and 73 Texas), the biggest key to building an NCAA Tournament resume besides eventually getting one will be avoiding further bad losses.
Two games against Utah (Feb. 4, Feb. 28) and one each against Cincinnati (Jan. 21) and West Virginia (Jan. 24) are the biggest must-wins by that measure.
The Sun Devils play at No. 1 Arizona on Wednesday and at No. 7 Houston on Jan. 18.
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