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NCAA Tournament: Frustration for Bobby Hurley, ASU in blowout loss to Buffalo

ASU's season has come to an end
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Bobby Hurley's former team ended his current team's season in convincing fashion Friday.

Hurley's Arizona State Sun Devils fell 91-74 to the Buffalo Bulls, the team Hurley coached from 2013-15, in a round of 64 NCAA Tournament game on Friday afternoon.

Senior forward and former Phoenix South Mountain High School star Zylan Chetham led ASU with 22 points, and forward Romello White added 12 points on 5 of 5 shooting from the field. But ASU's other three starters -- Remy Martin, Luguentz Dort and Rob Edwards -- combined to shoot just 7 of 29 from the field. Buffalo out-rebounded ASU 42-26 and had four players score in double figures, led by guard Jeremy Harris and forward Nick Perkins, who had 21 points and 10 rebounds apiece.

Frustration boiled over for the Sun Devils early in the second half when Hurley was unhappy with White, who appeared to turn around and respond to Hurley on the bench as he walked away. White later took an inadvertent elbow to the head and left the game with about seven minutes to play.

The Sun Devils missed their first 11 3-point attempts and gave up 11 first-half second-chance points to Buffalo, which improved to 32-3 this season.

The Bulls are coached by Nate Oats, Hurley's former assistant at Buffalo. Oats and the Bulls defeated No. 4 seed Arizona in the first round of last year's Tournament.

Despite the loss, the Sun Devils rattled off a number of impressive accomplishments during the 2018-19 season, Hurley's fourth in Tempe. They upset then-No. 1 Kansas in Tempe, swept archrival Arizona for the first time in 10 years and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons for the first time in nearly 40 years. Their win over St. John's on Wednesday was their first NCAA Tournament victory in a decade.

ASU ends the season with a 23-11 overall record and 12-6 mark in the Pac-12.