On the 40th day of this college basketball season, the Arizona State surge finally stalled. It didn’t derail, didn’t disappear, it just hit a speed bump against an opponent that usually resembles road kill.

It’s fine. The No. 3 Sun Devils found their gear in Tuesday’s second half and rolled, hammering Longwood 95-61 in front of a crowd of 9,308 at Wells Fargo Arena. With one non-conference contest left, they improved to 11-0.

"We're fortunate that we played that first half – taking nothing away from Longwood – against this opponent," coach Bobby Hurley said. "If we had done it in some other games, there might have been a different result. We got to clean that up. It's mainly on me. I didn't create enough of an edge to start this game."

Bottom line: Nothing beats perfection, and Hurley’s team – picked to finish sixth in this season’s Pac-12 – is just one of four that can boast it right now. That means something.

But this might have served as a lesson. Opponents these days aren’t intimidated by rankings or media darlings or anything of the sort. It just makes them play harder.

The Sun Devils opened Tuesday like they had better things to do – or bigger opponents for which to prepare. (Indeed, they start Pac-12 play Dec. 30 against rival Arizona.) Longwood contributed, playing a 2-3 zone that limited ASU post threat Romello White, but mostly the Sun Devils were flat.

Perhaps this was human nature.

Throughout an historic run, ASU had beaten Xavier, St. John’s and Kansas, rocketing up the polls and onto the national stage. Even Hurley admitted that while his players had earned the recognition, the ascension felt almost surreal, everything happening so fast.

And so here comes Longwood, a Big South school most college fans couldn’t locate on a map of these great United States. (It’s in Virginia.)

This affects the competitive spirit in ways coaches cannot coach. It’s how Loyola-Chicago beats Florida in Gainesville, Fla., Fort Wayne beats Indiana in Bloomington, Ind., and how the Longwood Lancers – ranked 345th out of 351 teams in the Ken Pomeroy efficiency rankings – hung around much longer than they should have.

"I thought we dictated tempo in the first half because of the zone we played," Longwood coach Jayson Gee said after his team fell to 3-9.

With less than two minutes left in the first half, the score was knotted 30-30. No one in Wells Fargo Arena appeared nervous – and in the end, there was no reason – but it’s a dangerous game to play. During Pac-12 travels, slow starts likely will be harder to overcome in places like Pullman, Wash., and Corvallis, Ore.

But overcome, ASU did.

Leading 35-30 at halftime, the Sun Devils in the second half produced their usual scoring avalanche – 22-6 at one point – to take control. And from there they kept pushing. Senior guard Kodi Justice came up with a steal and fed sophomore forward Mickey Mitchell, who wowed the crowd with a reverse dunk. Senior guard Tra Holder buried a 3. Order was restored, but not without a reminder.

With 11 minutes left, ASU didn't secure a loose ball. Then its transition defense was slow, giving Kamil Chapman an open 3. Up 19, Hurley called a 30-second timeout and lit up the Sun Devils.

"He wasn't even mad about the 3," Mitchell said. "He was mad we didn't get on the floor."

Message received. The Sun Devils outscored Longwood 60-31 in the second half, producing their second-most points in a half since 2003.

Although Holder scored 20, the night’s star was Mitchell. He’s everything the senior guards are not, which makes him invaluable. Like freshman guard Remy Martin, the 6-7 forward does the dirty work.

Against Longwood, Mitchell flashed to the middle of Longwood's zone and dished to open shooters. He finished with 12 points, five rebounds, an assist, two blocked shots and two steals. He also took a charge.

ASU shot just 33.3 percent in the first half but warmed up enough over the final 20 minutes to finish at 44.9. Justice pulled out of a mild shooting slump, scoring 18 points. Junior De'Quon Lake added 16 points, while Martin had 13 points, seven rebounds and nine assists.

The Sun Devils return to action Friday with a 1 p.m. tipoff against Pacific. It's their final tune-up before the start of the Pac-12 season, which they'll enter with a target on their jerseys. For such reasons – after watching shaky starts in consecutive games – Hurley said he'd approach Wednesday's practice with his foot "on the gas."

"We'll focus on figuring out ways to start a little better," he said. "We can't just play that second half in these games the way we've been doing it. Things are going to become a lot more difficult here moving forward."

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Contact Doug Haller at 602-444-4949 or at doug.haller@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him at Twitter.com/DougHaller. Subscribe to the Two-Man Weave college basketball podcast, available on iTunes.