D.J. Horne, Desmond Cambridge propel Arizona State past Stanford in Pac-12 play

PALO ALTO, Calif - It has been a tough enough stretch for the Arizona State men's basketball team. It didn't need another obstacle thrown in its way but alas there was one as the Sun Devils looked to regain some momentum after losing five of their last six games.

The Sun Devils trekked into the Bay area for a pair of Pac-12 games, the first coming against Stanford, which boasts one of the taller teams in the country. The obstacle? Well coach Bobby Hurley's squad was without 7-foot senior Warren Washington who had tested positive for COVID earlier in the week.

The Sun Devils got some clutch shots from D.J. Horne and Desmond Cambridge and their defense held Stanford scoreless for the last 4:05 and ASU emerged with a hard-fought 69-65 victory on Thursday at Maples Pavilion.

With the win ASU (17-8, 8-6) improved to 8-3 in games decided by two possessions or less. It has been awhile since the Devils picked up one in that fashion, though. It's more the way the Sun Devils were winning games early in the season.

"It's been a staple of what we've done late in games when we've had success," Hurley said. "You can look at the VCU game, Colorado, Creighton, all the games like that the last four minutes our defense has stepped up. We dragged them late into the clock and guarded them at the line well. We made our free throws. We made enough plays to win."

Stanford (10-14, 4-9), which came in having won five of its last six, did win the rebounding battle as expected, particularly with Washington (8.6 ppg, 7 rpg) out. Stanford had a 44-39 advantage but ASU did get some key ones late that helped secure the win.

With ASU up 67-65, Stanford's Harrison Ingram missed a 3-pointer from the corner that would have given his team the lead. ASU's D.J. Horne came up with the loose ball and was fouled with eight seconds left. He went to the line and calmly sank both tries for a 69-65 advantage that held up.

Horne led all scorers with 18 points. He also had six rebounds and two steals.

"Our mentality going in was that the guards were each going to have to get like five rebounds for us to come out of here with a win," Horne aid. "I think we did a good job on the boards, to play against a team like that, bigger than us and down a man and that man being our starting 5 man and we come away with a win. That's big for us."

Hurley admitted being without Washington was a concern. While ASU did get outrebounded, his team held its own with Devan Cambridge coming up with 10 to go with 10 points and four blocks.

"It's scary, scary going in. When we have had starters out of the game we haven't had as much success. You worry about those things because of their size and they had 12 offensive rebounds in the first half. We didn't rebound well early. I think some of that was just not having Warren out there and adjusting without a guy you can count on to rebound," Hurley said.

It was a game in which the Sun Devils showed the resiliency that they had early in the year. The contest was tied at the half, 33-all, but ASU started the second half slowly, much like it did in Saturday's loss to Oregon. That allowed the Cardinal to surge out to its biggest lead of the game at 48-35 early in the second half.

Stanford scored its last points of the game on two free throws by Spencer Jones with 4:05 left that put the Cardinal up by four, 65-61. ASU then got a 3-pointer by Desmond Cambridge Jr. with 2;20 to go to cut the deficit to 65-64, then one by Horne with 1:50 to play put the visitors ahead 67-65, and give the Sun Devils first lead of the game.

They hung on from there.

"It's kind of textbook how our season has been with getting down in different stages, not giving up and fighting and finding a way," Hurley said.. "Oregon loss was heartbreaking because I thought we played a winning game. We just had some minutes we didn't play winning basketball but it was still a quality game and we didn't get the win so it hurts. And then you keep going to the well, you come up empty you start getting demoralized so it was great the guys fought as hard as they did and were able to get a win."

The late heroics did a lot to resolve the frustration for the duo. Cambridge and Horne were just 3-for-14 from long distance but made four of five tries down the stretch to ignite the comeback. Cambridge finished with 13 while brother Devan had 10 which means ASU improves to 12-0 in games in which Devan scores in double digits.

Now it is on to Cal where the Sun Devils have a Saturday game against the last-place Bears (3-21, 2-11), who were beaten by Arizona 85-62 Thursday night.

Hurley did not say whether Washington would be available. Senior Alonzo Gaffney started in his place Thursday and did not score but did have five rebounds. Hurley also played true freshman Duke Brennan for 18 minutes and Enoch Boakye for 10. Brennan had two of ASU's eight blocks as well as a steal and was singled out by Hurley after the game.

"He (Washington) had a long week, was sick for days. In order for him to see a doctor and in order to do that he needed a COVID test and it was positive so he was unable to make the game," Hurley said.

Hurley added that he doesn't expect to lose any other players to the illness who may have been around his big man but the illness can be indepreictable.

"I don't sense, no one else has said anything to me about being sick so as far as I'm concerned, so far so good but Warren sounded good on the phone today, better, so that was good to hear."