It was a dress rehearsal, nothing more, but Arizona State basketball did what it needed to do, overwhelming UC Santa Cruz 98-53 in a Thursday night exhibition at Wells Fargo Arena.
In front of a few hundred fans, the Sun Devils pulled away from the NCAA Division III school with a 23-2 first-half spurt. Senior guard Torian Graham scored 23 points in 21 minutes, hitting five 3-pointers. Senior forward Obinna Oleka added 18 points and six rebounds.
"I wasn't particularly enthusiastic with the first eight minutes,'' ASU coach Bobby Hurley said. "Most times you play that way for that stretch of time it's not going to be a great result, so we have to improve how we started tonight, but our energy got better as the half went on.