Arizona State @ UCLA

Who will WIN this matchup?

Arizona State Sun Devils (19-8)

@ UCLA Bruins (17-11)

Current odds:

Arizona State Sun Devils: (+140)

UCLA Bruins: (-160)

• The line for this game is UCLA 3 points.

• Arizona State heads into this Thursday night’s Pac-12 game at red-hot UCLA in sole possession of first place, the first time the Sun Devils have led the league this late in the season since joining the conference in 1978-79. But with one game only separating the top five teams in the league, Bobby Hurley’s squad still has plenty of heavy lifting to do to claim the program’s first regular-season conference title since 1974-75 when they won the Western Athletic Conference. The Sun Devils are the hottest team in the conference with a seven-game win streak that also is the second-longest for teams from power conferences behind only Kansas which has won 13 in a row.

• UCLA, however, isn’t far behind with a five-game win streak, including an impressive road sweep last weekend of the Rocky Mountain schools that included a 70-63 victory at then-No. 17 ranked Colorado, and has won seven of its last eight contests overall. The one loss during that stretch however was at Arizona State, 84-66, on Feb. 6 when the Sun Devils connected on 14-of-24 3-pointers (58.3 percent) and led by as many as 23 points with a little over five minutes to go. “To see where they’ve come from as a team is remarkable,” Hurley told the Arizona Republic. “(Bruin head coach Mick Cronin’s) personality has definitely rubbed off on that team, and they’re playing with grit. They’re playing hard defensively. They’re a very physical rebounding team. They’ve gone to tough places and won, so it’s what you hope for this time of year.”

• A key to the Sun Devils’ recent surge has been the play of junior guard Alonzo Verge Jr. who averaged 21.5 points in last weekend’s home sweep of the Oregon schools, including a game-high 26 points in a 77-72 upset of No. 14 Oregon, and is averaging 20.7 points off the bench during the team’s seven-game win streak. Junior point guard Remy Martin is second in the Pac-12 in scoring (19.1) also leads the team in assists (4.0) and steals (1.6) while Verge, the frontrunner for conference Sixth Man of the Year, is second in scoring (14.6). Senior guard Rob Edwards (10.9) and junior forward Romello White (10.5) also are averaging double figures, with White also grabbing a conference-best 9.2 rebounds per game.

• UCLA was just 8-9 after a 74-59 home loss to Stanford on Jan. 15 but has gone 9-2 since then to move within a half-game of first place and enter the conversation for a potential NCAA Tournament berth. “It’s great. Obviously, we all saw this coming five weeks ago,” Cronin joked when asked about Thursday night’s first-place showdown. “Everybody on the outside, the sky was falling and now it’s all — well, it is beautiful and sunny, we’re in Westwood. If you’re a recruit, that’s how it is here — everything’s rosy.” Junior guard Chris Smith leads the team in scoring (13.2) but four other players are averaging between eight and 10 points including point guard Tyger Campbell (8.2) who took home conference freshman of the week honors after averaging 14 points and 7.5 assists in the road sweep of Utah and Colorado.

• F Jalen Hill, who leads the Bruins in rebounding with an average of 6.9 per game, missed the first meeting with ASU with a sprained right knee.

• UCLA is holding opponents to 62.6 points during its five-game win streak and is 16-0 this season when limiting opponents to 73 or fewer.

• Martin is averaging 21.9 points and has six 20-point games in Arizona State’s nine road contests this season.