Junior guard Frankie Collins (left) and graduate student forward Alonzo Gaffney (right) were two crucial pieces of a now red-hot Arizona State starting five that has now won three in a row after a 72-61 victory against San Francisco on Sunday. (Carine Heller / Inferno Intel)
It’s early in the season but injuries have already tested the Arizona State frontcourt depth.
ASU lost junior center Shawn Phillips Jr. in the third game of the season and senior forward Zane Meeks missed his second straight game on Sunday against San Francisco.
Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley only rotated three players from his bench against the Dons.
The starters did the heavy lifting in the team’s 72-61 victory over San Francisco.
In fact, they did all the lifting. All five scored every single point for the Sun Devils and finished in double figures.
Junior guard Frankie Collins led the team with a season-high 21 points. Collins was 7-of-11 shooting, including two 3-pointers. Defensively, he had eight rebounds and a team-high three steals and two blocks.
Junior forward Jamiya Neal had the Sun Devils’ first double-double of the season with 15 points and a team-leading 11 rebounds to go along with four assists.
“The thing I liked about Frankie and Jamiya,” Hurley said, “I think they had 18 defensive rebounds between the two of them. When your frontcourt is going through an injury crisis, which we are, it’s very difficult, because we have key players out and those guys did a good job of just getting in there, and getting those rebounds was big for us.”
The remaining starting trio of graduate student forward Alonzo Gaffney, graduate student guard Jose Perez, and junior forward Bryant Selebangue each contributed 12 points.
Selebangue impacted both ends of the court. The Tusla transfer had the hard assignment of defending the Dons’ leading scorer, 6-foot-8 junior forward Jonathan Mogbo. On offense he was 5-for-7 from the field, his best effort of the season so far.
He made two key buckets and a pair of free throws after San Francisco rallied to get within four points early in the second half. This twice pushed ASU’s lead back to 10 points with 17:15 and 15:33 remaining in the game.
“My mindset for the first game is definitely different from my mindset now,” Selebangue said. “The transition I feel like is way faster playing with a guard like Frankie to push you. You have to be more up-tempo and that’s something I had to adjust to in the offseason, my body and making sure I’m able to run down the court with these guys. But it’s been a great adjustment, love it here.”
Selebangue has shot at a 70% clip in three of the last four games.
His emergence has helped Hurley navigate the loss of Phillips Jr., who exited the team’s victory over UMass Lowell on Nov. 17 with a foot sprain. The LSU transfer is expected to be out until conference play commences later this month and possibly longer.
“I feel like my role hasn’t changed,” Selebangue said. “It’s still to come in and bring it, be that energy guy, be what the team needs me to be. But, yeah, we definitely need Shawn back out there. We need some size. He’s a great, great, great player.”
Before his injury, Phillips Jr. started the first three games of the season and led the team in rebounds and averaged 5.7 points per game.
In the team’s first game without the 7-foot center, the Sun Devils were blown out 77-49 by BYU on Thanksgiving,
Hurley inserted 6-foot-8 Selebangue into the starting lineup for the first time the following day against Vanderbilt. With more size up front, ASU flipped the script and blew past the Commodores 82-67.
Hurley has used the same starting five over the last three games and the Sun Devils have won them all.
“I think now we got a better understanding after getting a couple of games under our belt,” Collins said, “being more comfortable and understanding where people want their shots and understanding how hard we got to play as a team and just playing together.”
Despite winning decisively over this span, Hurley wants and expects to see more contributions from his bench moving forward, particularly from sophomore guard Kamari Lands.
“It’s a matter of time for Kamari Lands,” Hurley said. “Just like the new world we’re in, there’s an adjustment and a new environment. And he had some really good games and games that have not counted for on our record already. So I’ve seen him do it. I think he’ll be a guy that, right now, off the bench, will make it happen for us in that regard.”
Getting the talented Louisville transfer more involved offensively will be important for the Sun Devils’ success over their remaining four non-conference games.
The slate includes a trip to TCU on Dec. 16, who knocked ASU out of the NCAA Tournament last season, and Northwestern on Dec. 20, who upset No. 1 Purdue over the weekend.