ASU Linebacker -- Arrested for Assaulting GF ... Allegedly Choked, Hit Woman

An Arizona State football star -- their most highly touted defensive recruit -- is in serious trouble ... after cops say he beat up and choked his girlfriend in Arizona earlier this month.

Davon Durant -- a junior college transfer who was projected to be a starting linebacker for the Sun Devils -- was arrested for felony aggravated assault after a witness reported seeing "a male hit a female."

Cops responded to the scene ... where the woman told police she was having an argument with Durant in a black Chevy Tahoe -- when he demanded that she escort him up to her apartment so he could get his stuff (it sounds like they were breaking up.)

The woman says she refused to let him inside ... and he freaked out -- "hit her one time in the face and then grabbed her around the neck."

The woman says Durant squeezed her neck and impeded her ability to breathe.