Regardless of the task at hand, the first step is often the hardest.
That statement held true Friday for the ASU men's basketball team, which escaped with a 59-56 season-opening victory over Morehead State before a crowd of 6,154 at Wells Fargo Arena. The Sun Devils, who were again without senior shooting guard Curtis Millage, won on a night when they clearly weren't their sharpest.
"It was a win, but it was kind of ugly," said ASU senior forward Tommy Smith, who scored nine second-half points to give his team enough of a cushion to avert an upset bid.
With the good came the bad in ASU's final tune-up before the Maui Invitational. Smith was strong after the break, but still proved prone to getting in foul trouble, as he was whistled for his fifth with 1:01 remaining.
Senior forward Donnell Knight, who marked his third career double-double with a team-high 15 points and 12 rebounds, helped the Sun Devils (1-0) build an 11-point halftime lead.
Morehead had a chance to tie the game after an ASU turnover in the final seconds.
ASU led by three points, but had already exhausted all its timeouts with five seconds left when Knight attempted to make an in-bounds pass from the baseline. Knight couldn't find anyone open, so he hurled the ball into the backcourt.
With no gold shirts there to receive the pass, the ball rolled out of bounds, giving the Eagles (0-1) more than enough time to draw even. Luckily for the Sun Devils, Morehead State senior guard Chez Marks' desperation three-pointer was off the mark.
"All things considered and with the things that have gone on over the last 10 days or so, I thought we did a pretty good job of trying to refocus," said head coach Rob Evans, who improved to 4-1 all-time in season openers at ASU. "This is a pretty close-knit team. When they had a chance to fold, they rallied together and got it done. We're just going to be a team that's going to have to rake and scrape and try to get it done any way we can get it done."
Evans needed everything he could get from Knight with Millage and freshmen forwards Serge Angounou and Allen Morill confined to the bench. Angounou is out for the season after having surgery on his right knee, while Millage and Morill are both sidelined with academic eligibility issues.
"I want to make an impact," Knight said. "I don't want to leave here without doing anything."
Although Knight turned the ball over six times, his made sure his presence was felt in a positive way by draining 7 of 11 shots from the field. His 15 points are the most he's scored since posting 17 against USC on Jan. 20, 2001.
"Coach told me to play like a 'junk man,' so I took on that role, and that's what I am to this team," Knight said. "I get my touches without them even running the play for me."
What may have gone unnoticed was the fact that Knight was given the toughest defensive assignment. Morehead State swingman Ricky Minard still managed to score 18 points, but shot a paltry 7-for-22 from the field and was 4-for-11 from three-point range.
"Curtis and I could have taken our chances on Ricky and could have worn him down a little bit more instead of me playing so many minutes and guarding him the whole game," Knight said. "It would have made a big difference on the defensive end."
After playing man-to-man last week in a pair of exhibition games, the Sun Devils flashed an array of zone defenses Friday to keep the Eagles off balance. Morehead State shot 34.9 percent from the floor.
ASU freshman forward Ike Diogu was held to 10 points after scoring 55 in two exhibitions. But Smith picked up the pace on the offense end, especially in the second half when he posted nine points over a five-minute stretch.
"You can't always rely on Ike," Smith said. "He's a freshman and this was his first real collegiate game. You can't expect 50 points from him every night. You can't put that kind of pressure on him."
Reach the reporter at brian.gomez@asu.edu.