A heated rivalry matchup between Arizona and Arizona State turned ugly fast on Saturday. The Wildcats picked up the 81-72 win on the Sun Devils’ home court, but not before the game took plenty of dramatic turns.
Officials handed down four technicals throughout the game, including to ASU head coach Bobby Hurley midway through the first half. Hurley was T’d up for protesting a foul called on Sun Devils guard Adam Miller; the technical prompted Hurley to tear off his tie in frustration.
Later in the first half, Arizona guard Jaden Bradley was given a technical after staring down the ASU bench. Bradley had made a layup that tied the game at 23-all with four minutes remaining in the half.
Then, in the final minute of the game, star Wildcats guard Caleb Love was assessed a technical and ejected after getting into a skirmish with ASU’s BJ Freeman. After review, the official also gave Freeman a tech for head-butting Love while the two were exchanging words, and ejected him as well.
As the game ended, Hurley called his players off the court in order to skip the handshake line, seemingly fed up with the drama. The Sun Devils coach sent the players on the bench into the locker room with 30 seconds left on the clock; he and the players on the court left the moment the game was over.
Hurley said postgame that he had his team skip the handshake in order to deescalate things, saying that some of the Wildcats players were being sore winners.
“It was relentless, constant chatter from a couple of the Arizona players that was not being policed properly. Of course they’re going to be happy with winning, but it was done with no class, in my opinion,” Hurley said.
When asked about the late-game dust-up, Hurley had some choice words for Arizona’s star guard, saying of Love: “I do get a vote for all-conference, and I can tell you who’s not getting a vote.”
Ejections aside, Love and Freeman led their respective teams in points: Love finished with 27 points, six rebounds and seven assists, while Freeman ended up with 19 points, three rebounds and three assists. Bradley added 14 points for the Wildcats, and Miller put up 16 for the Sun Devils.
The rivals meet again on March 4, this time on Arizona’s campus.