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Sun Devils update

After sweeping the Oregon schools on the road last weekend, the Arizona State Sun Devils will spend the next two weeks at home in Tempe, where they will take the court at Wells Fargo Arena for highly anticipated Pac-10 matchups against UCLA, USC and Arizona.

The Bruins and Trojans will provide the opposition for ASU this weekend, with first-place UCLA paying a visit to Arizona State at 9 p.m. Eastern time Thursday and with USC coming to town Sunday night for a 10 p.m. EST tip-off. A week later, on the night of Feb. 22, the Sun Devils will host rival Arizona and will attempt to complete a season sweep of the Wildcats for the second consecutive year.

With last week’s victories at Oregon and Oregon State, the 18 th-ranked Sun Devils stand at 18-5 overall and 7-4 in the Pac-10, tied for third place in the conference with California.

Sophomore standout James Harden led the way with 36 points in Arizona State’s 66-57 win over the Oregon Ducks at McArthur Court in Eugene on Feb. 5. Two nights later at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, the ASU defense stole the show, holding the Beavers to 38 points for the second time this season. In the 49-38 triumph, the Sun Devils matched a school record for fewest points allowed in a Pac-10 game since joining the conference 30 years ago. Arizona State limited Oregon State to the same total in a 69-38 victory over the Beavers on Jan. 8.

The Sun Devils will be tested both defensively and offensively on Thursday by the 11 th-ranked UCLA Bruins (19-4, 8-2), who have won their last four games (over California, Stanford, USC and Notre Dame) by an average margin of 22.75 points.

“They’re obviously playing great basketball right now,” Arizona State head coach Herb Sendek said about the Bruins. “Everybody saw how they dismantled Notre Dame on Saturday (in an 89-63 non-conference victory at home over the Fighting Irish). It seems like they could have named the score. So right now, especially since we’ve seen so many different number-one ranked teams fall, you would be very reasonable to say that UCLA is playing as well as anyone in the country right now.”

USC head coach Tim Floyd, whose Trojans were hammered by the Bruins 76-60 on Feb. 4, agrees.

“They are playing as well as any team that I’ve seen since I’ve been back in college the last four years, and that includes playing Kansas and Memphis a year ago,” Floyd said. “I think they’re playing at a higher level than any team that I’ve seen in the last four years over the course of the last four games.”

UCLA has been getting consistent production from a deep rotation that features senior point guard Darren Collison (who is averaging 14.3 points and a league-leading 5.0 assists per game and also is first in the conference with a .937 free-throw percentage), senior guard/forward Josh Shipp (12.3 points per game), freshman guard Jrue Holiday (9.9 points and 3.6 assists per game), senior center/forward Alfred Aboya (9.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game and a .593 field-goal percentage), junior forward Nikola Dragovic (8.2 points per game) and junior guard/forward Michael Roll (7.7 points per game).

“I just think it has all come together and they’re just playing at a high level across the board,” Arizona State’s Sendek said about the Bruins, who lead the Pac-10 by a half-game over second-place Washington.

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“We’re probably running a little more motion than we were earlier in the year,” said UCLA head coach Ben Howland. “But we’re getting a lot more opportunities to push the ball and get it out in transition because our defense has really picked things up and created a lot more opportunities forcing turnovers and creating some steals. So I think that has been the biggest part of it. And we are a good shooting team. I think we are a very good shooting team. We’re continuing to work on that every day in practice to stay sharp and take good shots and get our best shooters the most shots.”

Arizona State, meanwhile, will continue to feed the basketball to its dynamic duo of Harden and senior Jeff Pendergraph.

Harden, a 6-5 guard, leads the Pac-10 in scoring with an average of 21.9 points per game. Pendergraph, a 6-9 power forward, is first in the nation with a field-goal percentage of .676. Pendergraph is averaging 13.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game.

Back in mid-January, the Sun Devils defeated UCLA 61-58 in overtime, handing the Bruins their only home loss of the season.

In the Jan. 17 victory over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, the Sun Devils scored the last 11 points of the second half, rallying from a 54-43 deficit with 8:15 remaining to force a 54-54 tie heading into overtime. Harden scored seven points and Pendergraph added four during ASU’s 11-0 run. Harden’s two free throws tied it at 54 with 22.5 seconds left in regulation.

Harden’s driving 4-footer in the lane with 35 seconds remaining in overtime put the Sun Devils ahead to stay at 59-58. After junior guard Derek Glasser swished two free throws with 11 seconds left to increase the Sun Devils’ advantage to 61-58, the ASU defense prevented the Bruins from getting off a shot during the final moments.

Harden finished the Jan. 17 contest with 24 points. Pendergraph scored 18 points in the game.

By Tom Kessler
DFN Sports Staff Writer