Any hope the Arizona State basketball team had of heading into next week’s Pac-12 tournament with momentum has quickly disappeared.

The Sun Devils followed up Thursday’s loss at No. 24 Colorado with an even-worse one, falling at Utah 98-59 Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale for both teams. It was the most points ASU has given up in a game this season and the fewest it has scored.

“I didn’t think that performance (against Colorado Thursday) would carry into something like this,” ASU coach Bobby Hurley said. “It’s Senior Day for Utah and they played well and they had guys making plays out there, so I’m not going to just say that it was all us.”

ASU will be the No. 8 seed for the tournament which begins on Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and will face Washington State in the first round.

The Sun Devils (10-13, 7-10)  trailed 41-28 after a first half in which the Utes (11-12, 8-11) shot 59% and it only got worse from there. Utah registered 14 of the first 18 points of the second half, taking a 55-32 lead on a jumper from the free throw line by Brendan Carlson and cruising from there.

The showing the last two games was especially disappointing because it comes after a three-game win streak during which the Sun Devils played arguably their best basketball of the season.

“Our transition defense wasn’t good. They had some interior baskets with little resistance,” Hurley said of the poor start. “Even though we didn’t start well we did have a 14-11 lead but didn’t play the last seven, eight minutes of the half with any efficiency at either end of the court. It’s disappointing.”

Senior point guard Remy Martin had a streak of eight straight 20-point games snapped when he managed just six against Colorado. He again found the going tough, finishing with eight points, four assists and two rebounds. He even struggled at the free-throw line where he is typically reliable, making just one of four attempts. Martin, who came into the contest the leading scorer in the conference at 20.3 points per game, took only one shot in the first half.

ASU shot just 28% (24-for-64) with seniors Alonzo Verge and Holland Woods each scoring 13. Sophomore Jalen Graham added 11 points and seven rebounds while sophomore spark plug Jaelen House came off the bench for nine points, seven rebounds and two steals.

Utah shot 59% (39-for-66) from the field, posted a rebounding advantage of 41-30 and scored 48 points in the paint, many of those uncontested. With a big lead, coach Larry Krystowiak cleared the bench early. Eleven players factored in the scoring, led by Alfonso Plummer and Mikael Jantunen with 15 each.

Mesa Red Mountain product Timmy Allen added 13 points, seven rebounds and eight assists, but drew a technical foul early in the second half after getting into a verbal altercation with the ASU bench.

“A game like that, at the end of the day it’s unacceptable,” Woods said. “Something like that, we can’t let that carry over to the next one.”

Freshman forward Marcus Bagley (sprained ankle) did not play. He returned from a seven-game absence on Thursday and played 20 minutes against the Buffaloes but was held out of the finale. Freshman guard Josh Christopher (back) was out for the seventh straight game and didn’t even make the trip with the team.

Hurley said because the Sun Devils went into the game on Thursday with a chance to finish fifth and get a first round bye in the conference tournament he wanted to have Bagley play but with that not a factor Saturday he opted to hold him out in preparation for the tournament.

Junior Chris Osten, who has been playing on a sprained ankle sustained in the same practice in which both Christopher and Bagley were originally hurt, left early in the first half after colliding with Woods and did not return.

“It’s going to be hard to see, you’ve got to pick the pieces up,” Hurley said. “It wasn’t a fun locker room for these guys at halftime. We almost had no warmup, which is pretty unusual. We said a lot of things. We spent a lot more time talking after. We’ll see what our response will be this week in practice and who is going to be available is another issue when we go.”

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602 444-4783.  Follow her on Twitter @MGardnerSports.

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