TEMPE, Ariz. — Jermaine Marshall scored 18 of his 26 points in the second half and Arizona State pulled away to beat Washington State 66-47 on Sunday.
Jahii Carson added 14 points and Shaquielle McKissic 12 for the Sun Devils (12-3, 1-1 Pac-12), who were coming off a 76-65 home loss to Washington in their conference opener.
DaVonte Lacy, Washington State’s leading scorer for the season, was back in the lineup eight days after an emergency appendectomy but left with 6:23 to go in the first half and did not return.
Freshman Que Johnson scored 18 for Washington State.
The Cougars (7-7, 0-2) shot 34 percent three days after their worst offensive showing in 76 years in a 60-25 loss to top-ranked Arizona Thursday night.
Marshall, a graduate student transfer from Penn State, scored 16 — including three 3-pointers — in an 18-3 run that finally opened the game up for the Sun Devils, 51-33, with 10:55 to play. Arizona State led by as many as 23 after that.
Before that, the Cougars made it close.
Arizona State used a 13-3 run to go up 23-12 on Carson’s driving bank shot with five minutes left in the first half.
But the Cougars scored nine in a row to cut it to 25-23 on two free throws by Dexter Kernich-Drew 34.6 seconds before the break. McKissic’s tip-in just before the buzzer put the Sun Devils ahead 27-23 at the break.
Barely two minutes into the second half, Carson’s 3-pointer put Arizona State up 33-25, but Johnson sank consecutive 3s for the Cougars to slice it to 33-31 with 17:09 to play.
Marshall scored the game’s next eight points with a three-point play, a drive to the basket and a 3-pointer, putting Arizona State up 41-31 with 14:03 to go.
Marshall’s 26 were his most at Arizona State and three shy of his career high set for Penn State against Michigan State last Jan. 16.
Johnson, who made 7 of 10 shots, was the only Cougar player in double figures.
Kernich-Drew, who missed the Arizona game with a concussion, also was back for Washington State. Lacy finished with four points and four rebounds in 11 minutes.
Washington State’s 25-point struggle in Tucson was the Cougars’ lowest-scoring game since they scored the same at Idaho in 1938. It also was the lowest-scoring game ever at McKale Center.
