TEMPE, Ariz. -- Being a freshman, it was Jonathan Gilling's first crack against Arizona at Wells Fargo Arena. As of right now, it seems things can't get any better than this ... but maybe they will.
"Man, it was fun," he said. "I've never tried anything like this. Our fans did a good a good job of being louder than them. I liked it. It was fun."
How could he not feel that way? Arizona State knocked off in-state rival Arizona 87-80, putting a big dent in the Wildcats' hopes of making it back to the NCAA tournament for the second straight season. It also gave Arizona State some hope for the future after a difficult season. Next up: the Pac-12 tournament, with the opener against Stanford on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
"It means a lot. It gives us a lot of momentum, and after this one, a lot of our spirits are up," said Carrick Felix, who tied for the team lead with 21 points. "I think we are ready to go. We have a big opportunity coming up next Wednesday, and we've just got to prepare. We have to get ready to go tomorrow and execute and get ready for our opponent. I think going into our Pac-12 tournament, we are good to go."
Even at 10-20 overall, it's better late than ever.
"It's by far one of the best games we've put together," Felix said. "We're just going to keep chipping away. We're all coming close and coming together. We really believed in this one, and coach put together a great plan."
It didn't hurt to have the "best four minutes" of a second half all season, as one player claimed. What those minutes did was keep Arizona State from wilting after a surge from UA to end the first half. UA outscored the Sun Devils 8-2 in the final two-plus minutes to take a 44-38 lead, but ASU never backed down.
Felix was a big reason why, his teammates said. He hit back-to-back baskets to put ASU ahead 45-44 just 90 seconds into the second half, and although the lead see-sawed back and forth and the game was tied 11 times in the second half, UA couldn't take control.
Felix was a big reason, despite being out of pocket the last two weeks with an illness.
"I'm not 100 percent," he said. "But last week I missed my guys, and I'm glad to be back and they are glad to have me. It's great to have the support."
ASU coach Herb Sendek is just glad to have his team playing like it's capable of playing. Just last week, in a loss to UCLA, Sendek told the media that if his team could just make the plays it was capable of, there was a chance to get some wins. ASU has won twice since.
"This afternoon, I thought we did that time and time again," Sendek said of his team making plays against Arizona. "I thought a real key for us was the start of the second half, after losing momentum and not executing at the end of the first half. Our guys came out and delivered the first blow and had a seven-and-zero run. I thought that was a very important stretch of the game for our team, psychologically."
It sure did something to them offensively: ASU outscored UA 49-36 in the second half. How significant was that? The Devils didn't score 49 points in five games this season.
Arizona's defense, considered the best in the Pac-12, just couldn't stop ASU, which shot 60 percent from the floor in the second half and 55.8 percent for the game.
"I thought it was a tremendous team effort," Sendek said. "We could pass around superlatives to everybody who contributed and played. Two areas on offense that we have been addressing all year have been our turnovers and our free-throw shooting.
"We have maintained all along that if we could somehow get our turnovers in the neighborhood of 12 or fewer (and) if we could convert better at the line, that would put us in a much better position to be competitive. And this afternoon, both of those happened."
