Whether he was nailing a 3-pointer, nabbing a steal or pumping up his teammates, Jamelle McMillan did it all Saturday.
And boy, did the No. 23 ASU men’s basketball (18-5, 7-4 Pac-10) team need it.
Starting in place of injured junior point guard Derek Glasser, the sophomore McMillan played perhaps his best game as a Sun Devil in Saturday’s 49-38 victory over Oregon State (10-12, 4-7) in Corvallis.
The game started off as an epic defensive struggle, as neither team broke double digits until nearly 14 minutes into the game.
McMillan combined with sophomore guard James Harden to score all of ASU’s points in the first half that ended in a 19-13 Sun Devil lead.
After making only two 3-pointers in his previous six games, McMillan caught fire from behind the arc, burying four first-half trifectas.
For most of the half, though, each team’s zone defense was in complete control of the game. There was even an eight-minute span in the middle of the period where the teams went a combined 1-for-15 from the floor.
Then intermission came, and the game became fluid.
Senior forward Jeff Pendergraph got his touches, sophomore forward Rihards Kuksiks was hitting his threes and the floor started to open up for ASU.
Pendergraph was especially impressive in the second half, as he scored all 15 of his points after not even attempting a shot before the break. Meanwhile, Kuksiks went 3-of-6 from behind the arc.
OSU stayed within reach of ASU for the first few minutes of the second period before Pendergraph took over.
OSU junior Roeland Schaftenaar hit a one-handed floater in the lane with 16:15 left to cut his team’s deficit to 26-22, but that’s as close as the Beavers would get.
Pendergraph slammed down a one-handed alley-oop pass from Harden the next time down the court. Two possessions later, ASU executed the pick-and-roll to perfection, leading to an easy Pendergraph dunk.
By the time the senior made a nice up-and-under move on Schaftenaar with just more than 14 minutes to play, ASU held a 32-22 lead and the victory in tow.
Though Kuksiks returned to the starting lineup after missing Thursday’s game to illness, Glasser was relegated to the bench after suffering a neck injury in Thursday’s contest against Oregon.
With his father, Nate — who is the coach of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers — in the stands, McMillan finished with 14 points and five steals. Harden managed to make just two free throws in the second half to bring his point total to nine.
ASU limited OSU to just 32.6 percent shooting, including 21.1 percent (4-of-19) from behind the arc.
The 38 points allowed was tied for the second-lowest total in Sun Devil history.
The win gave ASU its first, four-game conference road-winning streak since the 1980-1981 season.
Reach the reporter at alex.espinoza@asu.edu.
