ASU junior guard Ty Abbott did it again.

Abbott’s red hot shooting propelled the Sun Devils to a 73-69 win over the Arizona Wildcats at McKale Center in Tucson. And honestly, red hot doesn’t accurately describe what Abbott did on Sunday.

Abbott scored the Sun Devils’ first points of the game, draining a three-pointer just 1:17 into the game, giving all 14,631 in attendance a sign of things to come. He scored 14 points in the first half as ASU went to the locker room with a 30-25 lead, but Abbott was just getting started.

After Arizona’s Nic Wise knocked down a trey to pull the Wildcats to within two at 30-28 just :25 into the second half, Abbott answered right back, hitting his fourth three-pointer of the game to stretch the lead back to 5 at 33-28.

Abbott had another stretch later in the second half where he scored the Sun Devils’ next nine points. He finished with 28 points on 11 of 17 shooting from the field.

The curious part about it was that he didn’t score for the final eleven minutes of the game–that’s when his teammates took over.

Two unlikely sources, seniors Eric Boateng and Jerren Shipp, who had scored for exactly zero points to that juncture of the game, combined for 14 of ASU’s final 22 points, helping them to preserve their third straight win at McKale Center. It’s the Devils’ longest winning streak in Tucson since they won four straight from 1979 to 1983.

But the best part of Abbott’s performance may have been the fact that he didn’t force anything. He passed up open shots early in the shot clock, especially in the second half. How many times have you seen an unconscious shooter just fire it up from wherever they are on floor? Abbott didn’t do that. The only “wild” shot he took was a driving shot where he muscled the ball to the rim, looking for a foul. Abbott didn’t get the whistle, but he did hit the shot. It was that kind of night for him.

With the win, the Sun Devils are now 19-8, and 9-5 in Pac-10 play, just a half game behind conference-leading Cal. The Devils will visit the Golden Bears in Berkeley on Saturday.

Arizona, who was led in scoring by Nic Wise’s 18 points, falls to 13-13 overall and 7-7 in Pac-10 play.

Shipp Takes Over
Abbott will get most of the attention, as well he should, after his performance on Sunday, but it was senior Jerren Shipp who had the biggest buckets of the night for ASU.

Shipp, who came into the game averaging 3.9 points per game, scored 8 huge points in a span of 3:23 of the 2nd half. He had only 8 three-pointers all year, and was shooting just 25% from behind the arc entering the game, but Shipp had two treys during his run. Shipp also had an assist, a rebound and a steal in his 20 minutes of playing time off the bench.

Devils avoid the drought
I wrote earlier on Sunday that to win in Tucson, ASU would have to avoid the long stretches without scoring baskets that have plagued them in their losses this season.

For the most part, they were able to do that on Sunday. The longest field goal “drought” ASU experienced against Arizona was a 4:27 stretch of the first half. Rihards Kuksiks hit a trey with 6:34 to go before halftime to tie the score at 21-apiece. ASU didn’t score again until there was 2:07 remaining, when Derek Glasser hit a three to pull the Sun Devils within one at 25-24.