Caleb Love finished with 27 points, including 18 points in the second half, before he was ejected along with Arizona State’s BJ Freeman in the waning seconds of Arizona’s 81-72 victory Saturday at Tempe.
Love and Freeman were ejected with 30 seconds left after Freeman head-butted Love when they engaged in a verbal exchange.
Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley waved his team to get off the floor before the final buzzer sounded and elected not to shake the hand of Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd after the game.
Bobby Hurley said Arizona’s players were classless in their chatter before Freeman’s head butt of Love, leading to his decision to not shake hands to try to avoid an escalation. pic.twitter.com/63SQwXEXf6
— Chris Karpman (@ChrisKarpman) February 1, 2025
Tommy Lloyd says there no bad blood about no post game hand shake. pic.twitter.com/WKtdYcKm0h
— Mark McClune (@MarkMcClune) February 1, 2025
Arizona (15-6, 9-1 Big 12) has won eight of the last nine games against Arizona State (12-9, 3-7).
The Wildcats have won five consecutive games in Tempe.
Hurley’s record against Arizona is 2-8 at home and 4-16 overall since his hire in 2015-16.
Arizona took a 76-69 lead with 2:36 left on a Love 3-pointer but Freeman answered with a shot beyond the arc on the other end.
A lob from Love to Henri Veesar under the basket resulted in a Veesaar layup to give Arizona a 78-72 with 1:22 remaining. Veesar finished with 11 crucial points in the second half after going scoreless in the first half.
Freeman, who led Arizona State with 19 points, then missed a 3-pointer that was blocked by Love.
Jaden Bradley then made a layup to close out the scoring.
Props to ASU's Adam Miller acknowledging I believe Jack Murphy, who approached him for sportsmanlike embrace/handshake. https://t.co/rsTKk9bUcI
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) February 1, 2025
Bradley finished with 14 points and Veesaar added 11 rebounds and six rebounds.
Carter Bryant contributed eight points and 10 rebounds.
Adam Miller finished with 16 points and Basheer Jihad added 14 points and seven rebounds for Arizona State.
The game had 11 lead changes and six ties.
The intense back-and-forth was compounded by technical fouls in the first half on Hurley for arguing a foul call and Bradley for taunting.
Arizona took the biggest lead of the first half of 17-9 with 10:38 left following a 9-3 run.
Arizona State answered with a 9-0 run with all the points scored by Freeman, on a 3-point play and two shots from beyond the arc.
The Sun Devils led 29-25 with 1:57 left in the half following a jump shot by Jayden Quaintance.
Arizona was in the midst of a 2-of-17 stretch from field at that time.
A 3-pointer by reserve point guard Conrad Martinez fueled Arizona outscoring Arizona State 10-5 down the stretch, enabling Arizona to take a 35-34 lead.
Miller opened the second half with a 3-pointer and Jihad scored seven consecutive points for the Sun Devils, leading them to a 44-39 lead with 17:21 left.
Arizona took a 58-52 lead following a 10-3 run but Arizona State answered with an 8-2 stretch to tie the game at 60 with 9:10 remaining.
The Wildcats pushed their lead to 68-62 before Freeman responded with a 3-pointer.
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