Arizona State Sun Devils vs Utah St. Aggies Match Player Stats On Nov 21, 2018

Freshman Luguentz Dort had a season-high 33 points and seven rebounds and fellow freshman Taeshon Cherry scored a season-high 15 points off the bench as the Arizona State Sun Devils beat the Utah State Aggies 87-82 in the final of the MGM Resorts Main Event in Las Vegas on Wednesday night.

Remy Martin added 13 points and Kimani Lawrence had 10 for the Sun Devils (5-0), who won a holiday tournament in Las Vegas for the second consecutive year. They beat Xavier to win the Continental Tire Invitational in 2017.

Sam Merrill led the Aggies (5-1) with 27 points and three 3-pointers, Dwayne Brown Jr. added 14 points and John Knight III finished with 13. Utah State was attempting to open the season with six consecutive wins for the first time since 1966-67.

The Sun Devils used an 18-10 run to pull away in the second half, grabbing their biggest lead to that point at 69-60 with 8:39 remaining. Dort scored eight points, while Cherry and Martin had five apiece during the spurt.

Merrill made two free throws to bring the Aggies within 73-70 with 4:12 left, but the Aggies never had the ball with a chance to tie thereafter as Arizona State made eight free throws in the final 2:12

Arizona State was outrebounded for the first time this season, 38-32, but compensated by shooting 50.0 percent from the field (26 of 52), 65.2 percent in the second half. The Sun Devils made 7-of-14 from three-point range, Cherry hitting three and Dort two.

Dort, a 6-foot-4 guard, has 115 points and 39 rebounds in his first five games.

Utah State took a seven-point lead, its largest of the game, after a Merrill 3-pointer with 14:07 to go in the first half. But Arizona State went on an 8-0 run to grab the lead, and Dort had seven points of his 14 first-half points in the final four minutes as Arizona State led 37-35 at the break.

The Sun Devils entered the game with a Division I-leading 51 rebounds a game and had outbound by opponents by an average of 17 a game.

--Field Level Media