Arizona State guard BJ Freeman and Arizona guard Caleb Love were both assessed double technical fouls and ejected from Saturday’s game after Freeman headbutted Love late in the second half of Arizona’s 81-72 win in Tempe, Arizona.
The incident came with 30.7 seconds remaining in regulation and Arizona leading 81-72. Officials reviewed the play and deemed both Freeman and Love’s actions worthy of ejection after a chippy confrontation between the two briefly halted play and required the two teams be separated.
Neither team scored thereafter and the game ended in a whimper with both ASU coach Bobby Hurley and Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd agreeing to skip the handshake line because of how tense the game ended. Hurley walked off the floor with time still remaining in the game and encouraged some of his players to go to the locker room before the Sun Devils inbounded the ball with 1.5 seconds remaining to run out the clock.
“It was relentless, constant chatter from a couple of the Arizona players that wasn’t policed properly,” Hurley said after the game. “It was done with no class. I had to make the tough decision to, in the best interest of our team, to get them into the locker room so there’d be no further incidents the rest of the game and in the handshake line. … I wanted to avoid any further confrontation.”
Love finished with 27 points, seven assists and six rebounds in the winning effort with 18 of those points coming in the second half. Freeman led his team with 19 points and had a huge start to the game that powered ASU at one point to a five-point lead before the loss.
Arizona has now won 11 of its last 12 games dating back to mid-December and is 9-1 in Big 12 play after starting its season 4-5. Arizona State, on the other hand, fell to 12-9 overall and 3-7 in Big 12 play with losses now in six of its last eight games.