Arizona State rallies, then holds off Idaho State
Alston Mason's 14 points and Jayden Quaintance's six blocked shots led Arizona State to a 55-48 home victory on Tuesday night over Idaho State in Tempe, Ariz.
In the season opener for both teams, BJ Freeman finished with 12 points and Joson Sanon had 11 for the Sun Devils.
Idaho State was led by Isaiah Griffin's 12 points and seven rebounds.
Connor Hollenbeck and Jake O'Neil each had 10 points, while O'Neil also collected 11 rebounds.
Arizona State, able to overcome 14 turnovers, held on after allowing a 13-point lead in the second half slip away.
O'Neil had the opportunity to cut into the Sun Devils' 51-46 lead with two minutes left but missed the front end of a one-and-one situation.
Arizona State corralled offensive rebounds after missing a pair from 3-point range before Quainance was fouled with 1:01 left.
Quaintance made both free throws to increase the lead to 53-46.
Quaintance then blocked a shot before Hollenbeck grabbed the miss and was fouled by Solon.
Hollenbeck's two free throws cut the lead to 53-48 with 41 seconds left.
After Quaintance missed the front end of a one-and-one, Idaho State's Jaedyn Brown missed a 3-pointer.
Mason sealed the win with two free throws with 10 seconds left.
A layup by Freeman gave Arizona State its biggest lead at 39-26 with 13:48 left.
A 10-2 run by Idaho State cut the lead to 45-44 with 5:07 remaining.
The Sun Devils turned an 11-3 deficit with 16:17 left in the first half to a 29-16 lead almost 15 minutes later.
The hosts went on a 15-0 run to take the 29-16 lead with 1:29 remaining in the first half.
Mason began that stretch scoring the first eight points, which included two 3-pointers, and Freeman ended it with a layup and a 3-pointer.
The Bengals shot 25.4 percent (17-for-67) from the field in the game, including 14.3 percent (4-of-28) from 3-point range.
