No. 20 ASU Sweeps Oregon Schools at Home

TEMPE, Ariz - Herb Sendek's brainchild is evolving.

Is his brand of complex motion offense finally burned into his players' minds? The matchup zone defense becoming second nature?

Thursday, No. 20 ASU held lowly Oregon State (6-8, 1-3 Pac-10) to 15 first-half points in its 69-38 victory. The 38 points allowed by the Sun Devils was the lowest total in the school's 31-year affiliation with the Pac-10. The ASU offense was nearly perfect in the second half, making 16 of 18 shots.

Sunday, the Sun Devils (14-2, 3-1) picked apart Oregon to win 76-58, despite off-days from senior forward Jeff Pendergraph and sophomore guard James Harden.

"I thought it was a good team effort to win this afternoon," Sendek said. "Our guys navigated through some foul trouble...Derek Glasser had a impressive afternoon."

Five Sun Devils scored double-digits, but four picked up at least three fouls.

Pendergraph was in foul trouble all day and played just 18 minutes. He scored 10 points (five-of-seven) and grabbed seven rebounds before fouling out with 1:13 left.

Junior point guard Derek Glasser picked up the slack and scored 15 points to go along with a career-high 11 assists.

Though Harden scored a game-high 19 points, he shot just five-of-12 (one-of-six from three) and eight-of-13 from the line.

Sendek likened Harden to a running back who is getting a lot of carries. "He's getting beat up a little bit," Sendek said.

Sendek also offered up his NFL predictions in the postgame press conference, saying his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers and the nearby Arizona Cardinals would advance to the next round.

The Oregon defense had no answer for ASU, who amassed 18 assists on 24 field goals. Meanwhile, the Ducks shot just 38.9 percent for the game and 29.2 percent in the first half.

"We still have a few kinks to work out," Glasser said. "But I like where we're at right now."

ASU led 41-25 at intermission and closed out the first half on a 17-5 run. The Sun Devils led by as many 26 in the second half, but played pretty sloppy to finish the game.

Both Glasser and Sendek said they would like to have seen the team end the game on a better note.

Still, the team is slowly forming a new identity. Sendek is starting to play Glasser and fellow point guard Jamelle McMillan on the floor together, something that never happened last year.

McMillan re-worked his three-point shot in the offseason and can be another proficient spot-up shooter if he's not facilitating the offense. Sunday he went three-of-seven from behind the arc.

Both Glasser and McMillan said they like playing alongside each other.

"That’s giving us a nice rotation with our point and two guard with Ty [Abbott], Jamelle, and Derek complementing each other," Sendek said.

Junior center Eric Boateng is also looking more and more comfortable on the floor. Sunday he played 22 minutes in wake of Pendergraph's absence and scored seven points to go along with six rebounds and two blocks.