Martin leads Arizona State past St. John’s in HOF Tip-Off

UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- In a tale of two halves, Remy Martin picked the right time to come alive for Arizona State.

The junior point guard scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half to lead Arizona State back to beat St. John's 80-67 Saturday in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off.

The Sun Devils (3-1), who trailed 40-31 at the half, stormed back with a 20-6 run early in the second, with Martin scoring 13 straight points to ignite it.

"I think sometimes it's a matter of time with Remy and I haven't had many halves like the first half with him, it was very uncharacteristic, " Arizona State coach Bob Hurley said. "He's one of the best point guards in the country.

Romello White added 15 points, Rob Edwards had 13 and Jaelen House 11. The Sun Devils shot 60 percent (18-for-30) in the second half and 28-for-61 for the game.

LJ Figueroa led the Red Storm (4-2) with 17 points and Julian Champagnie added 15. St. John's shot just 31 percent (9-for-29) in the second half and committed 12 of 16 turnovers after halftime.

Trailing 42-33 with 17:07 to play, Martin made a second-chance jumper to get things rolling. After shooting 0-for-6 from the field in the first half with two points, Martin took off, hitting 6 of 9 the rest of the way.

"We let him loose, " St. John's coach Mike Anderson said. "He's a good player and you're not going to hold a good player down for 40 minutes. "That was the goal, but in the second half . you could just see he got charged up."

While ASU sizzled behind its star, the Red Storm fizzled. Their 12 turnovers in the half led to 14 points for the Sun Devils, who led by as many as 18 after the break.

"For me it was going into halftime and trying to figure out how we got to play better," Martin said. "As a point guard and a leader of this team, I knew that I needed to pick it up and we did it with the whole team."

A first half of extreme runs ended with St. John's leading 40-31. Figueroa led with 13 points for the Red Storm, which opened the game with a 15-2 run in just over five minutes.

Arizona recovered from a 0-for-6 start from the field by making 6 of 8, tying it at 16, on House's 3-pointer at 10:22.

However, the Sun Devils shot just 32.1 percent in the first half, making 4 of 17 in the final 10 minutes. White had a team-high eight points at the break.

"They were the aggressor in the first half and their pressure affected us," Hurley said.

St. John's was 15 of 36 on field goals and finished the half on a 13-4 run.

BIG PICTURE

St. John's: The Connecticut trip are the Red Storm's only road games until late December as they open the season with 10 of 12 at home.

Arizona State: The Sun Devils have just started a four-game road trip, with stops at Princeton and San Francisco after the tournament.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

The Sun Devils posted their 21st second-half comeback victory under Hurley in the past four years, which ties them for sixth-most in the nation (Kansas 27). In the previous five years before Hurley arrived, ASU had 12.

ROLE PLAYER

Starting in place of injured guard Alonz Verge Jr., ASU sophomore Elias Valtonen scored 10 points with two rebounds, two assists and a steal in a season-high 27-plus minutes. Valtonen came in averaging 2.7 points per game.

UP NEXT

St. John's: Wraps up the tournament with UMass in the consolation game on Sunday.

Arizona State: Advances to play No. 7 Virginia in the championship game on Sunday.