Paulius Murauskas scored a career-high 33 points on 13-for-18 shooting from the field to help Arizona State breeze past Northern Colorado for a 90-63 victory on Friday night in Tempe, Ariz.
After going scoreless in the season opener on Monday, Bryce Ford scored 17 points for Arizona State (2-0), which led by as many as 30 in the second game under first-year head coach Randy Bennett. Dillan Shaw added eight points and 12 rebounds, while Filip Malesevic collected 11 boards for the Sun Devils.
Manning Shareef led Northern Colorado (1-1) with 13 points, followed by Hunter Caldwell’s 11. Vincent Delano and Andrew Crawford scored 10 points apiece for the Bears, who were outscored 48-32 in the paint.
Arizona State held a 17-5 advantage in fast-break points.
Facing a 22-point halftime deficit, Northern Colorado used 3-pointers by Crawford and Caldwell to pull to within 16 with 18:24 left.
Arizona State answered with nine straight points, including Murauskas’ back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 59-34 advantage.
Shareef hit his second triple to cut the Sun Devils’ lead to 22 with 8:37 remaining.
At the 5:01 mark, Murauskas’ three-point play punctuated his career night and gave Arizona State a 26-point edge.
After a layup by Northern Colorado’s Jeremiah Hammond evened the score at 12, Shaw made a pair of layups and Ford scored five straight points to give the Sun Devils a nine-point edge.
Kaidon Rayfield’s jumper sliced the Bears’ deficit to 26-16, but Ford, Ben Defty and Murauskas each scored to extend the Arizona State lead to 16 with 6:36 remaining in the opening half.
The Sun Devils took their first 20-point lead on Murauskas’ consecutive baskets, before JRob Croy’s 3-pointer made it 44-20.
Murauskas stamped an 18-point first-half output with a layup in the final seconds to give Arizona State a 48-26 halftime advantage.
Ford added 12 first-half points, while Shareef’s five led the outmatched Bears in the first half.
