ASU stumbles at home against Cal, 76-73

Basketball may consume most of Herb Sendek's energy, but he follows football and baseball enough to where cross-sport analogies seep into his explanations.

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This one was simple: No energy. And it was the biggest cause behind Arizona State's 76-73 loss to California before an announced crowd of 9,827 at Wells Fargo Arena that sounded ready to roll behind the home school, but never got the chance.

It's a dent in the Sun Devils' quest for that NCAA tournament berth that seemed far-fetched as recently as two weeks ago - but it's hardly lethal.

Sendek looked and sounded agitated by his team's effort. The coach poked and prodded as best he could, but it was one of those days.

"I wasn't able to hit the high, inside fastball," Sendek said of revving up his players. "I tried as many things as I could, but I struck out."

ASU went three-up, three-down on Saturday, and though the box score says the Sun Devils tied a school-record with 16 3-pointers, and freshman Ty Abbott went for 30 points to bust out of his shooting funk, there were only frowns.

Jeff Pendergraph's day was done after just 16 minutes, and the junior was in a huff afterward and out of the arena quickly. Most teammates weren't far behind.

The day started well enough, with an early 10-point lead behind prolific outside shooting, but once the offense went dry, Pendergraph found foul trouble and the Golden Bears (15-9, 6-7 Pac-10) fought back to trail only 31-30 at halftime, the swoon started.

James Harden had three Bears in his way on every trip to the basket, turnovers piled up and a Devil 3-point shooting fiesta misfired. ASU scored four points in a seven-minute stretch in the first half, then one point in the first six minutes of the second half.

No fast breaks, crisp passing or pep in their steps like they found against Arizona and Stanford.

Sendek called it the "passion tanks," and they were empty.

"Usually I have answers," said Harden, who finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and eight turnovers. "I don't even know."

Ryan Anderson was Cal's answer to ASU's lethargic day. The Pac-10's leading scorer stretched that lead out a bit with 28 points. He also had 11 rebounds and hit all of Cal's free throws down the stretch.

"It's frustrating not getting stops on defense," said Abbott, who scored the third-most points in a game by an ASU freshman.

The Sun Devils rallied in the final three minutes, hitting a bevy of 3-pointers to pull within four points in the final 10 seconds, but a miss and more free throws finally shut the door.

Patrick Christopher added 20 points and five rebounds for the Bears, while the Sun Devils other than Abbott shot 15-for-46 from the field.

"(Cal) clearly and unequivocally deserved to win," Sendek said.

Facing a Washington road trip this week, the Sun Devils are mindful of what's at stake as March creeps closer, but not before four more weekends of the Pac-10 grind.

"We have to be better," Harden said. "It's coming down to the wire trying to get to the tournament and we have to turn it up to another level."