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Balanced effort lifts Arizona State to fourth straight win

Feb 16, 2009 - 7:11 AM TEMPE, Arizona (Ticker) -- With Southern California doing its best to prevent James Harden from scoring, Arizona State's supporting cast picked up the slack.

Derek Glasser scored a season-high 18 points and Jeff Pendergraph had 12 and 11 rebounds as No. 18 Arizona State won its fourth straight game with a 65-53 victory over Southern California on Sunday.

Harden, who was held to a career-low four points in the teams' previous meeting, added 13 points and Jamelle McMillan scored 11 for the Sun Devils (20-5, 9-4 Pac-10), who shot 50 percent (22-of-44) from the floor.

The Pac-10 Conference's leading scorer at 21.6 points per game coming in, Harden was 5-of-6 from the floor as the Trojans did their best to deny him the ball. The sophomore missed all eight of his shots in the 61-49 loss at USC on January 15.

USC led by five early on, but Arizona State slowly gained control of the game with a number of easy baskets.

Pendergraph had three wide-open dunks and scored 10 first-half points as the Sun Devils scored 16 points in the paint in the opening 20 minutes.

"Guys were taking care of the ball, finding open people. We just executed (ASU) coach (Herb) Sendek's game plan down to a 'T,'" Pendergraph told the Arizona Republic.

Ty Abbott made a 3-pointer to give Arizona State a seven-point advantage late in the first half and the sophomore made it a 29-20 score at the break, flying in for a follow-up dunk off Glasser's missed 3-point attempt with two seconds to go in the half.

The Trojans came out firing to start the second half, connecting on seven of their first nine shots to take a 38-37 lead with 12:21 remaining. Hackett had seven points during the 18-8 run.

That would be USC's only lead of the game, however, as Arizona State responded with a 15-2 run to take a 52-40 lead with 5:26 left to play. McMillan made a pair of 3-pointers during the burst.

Freshman DeMar DeRozan's three-point play capped a 7-0 spurt that drew the Trojans within 52-47, but McMillan answered with another 3-pointer to stretch the lead back to eight with 3:21 to play.

Frustration for the Trojans boiled over with 48 seconds to play when Hackett was called for an offensive foul, disallowing a basket that would have cut the deficit to 57-53. USC coach Tim Floyd stormed onto the court, receiving two technicals before Arizona State security had to escort him off the floor.

"I'm going to stand up for our players," Floyd told the Arizona Republic. "I'm going to stand up for this game, which is what I did."

Glasser went 6-of-8 from the foul line in the final minute to seal the victory for the Sun Devils, who committed a season-low four turnovers.

DeRozan had 16 points and 10 rebounds for USC (15-9, 6-6), which dropped its third straight game.