ASU junior guard Jamelle McMillan said the ASU men’s basketball team had to play perfect on Saturday if it wanted to come out of Bank of America Arena with a victory over Washington.

The Sun Devils played far from perfect.

UW dominated ASU from start to finish and ran away with a 79-56 victory.

The loss drops ASU out of first place in the Pac-10 and into a five-way tie for second place with UW, UA, UCLA and USC.

With the win, the Huskies improved to 16-1 at home this season and 34-2 in the last two years.

“Washington really took it to us,” ASU coach Herb Sendek said, according to UW media relations. “They were very aggressive and I thought they played outstanding defense.”

It was a stark contrast from last month’s contest, where ASU handily beat UW 68-51 in Tempe. But again, the Huskies are a different team at home than on the road, where they haven’t won a game yet this season.

“It was just two different games all the way around,” Sendek said.

Both teams struggled offensively early on, but then the Huskies found their groove.

Already leading 8-4, UW went on a 19-3 run to take control of the game and lead 27-7 with 7:43 left in the first half.

During that stretch, ASU was just 1-of-5 from the field, missed four free throws and turned the ball over twice.

UW led by as many as 24 in the first half, but ASU went on a 9-0 run, sparked by freshman guard Demetrius Walker, to cut the lead to 38-23 with 1:38 to play in the half.

However, a pair of jumpers by UW sophomore guard Isaiah Thomas gave the Huskies a 42-25 halftime lead.

The Sun Devils attempted to fight back in the second half and twice got the deficit down to 15, but the Huskies had an answer each time ASU made a charge.

“We had a hard time with their pressure [defense], and I thought the Washington guards were very dominant both defensively as well as offensively,” Sendek said. “They did a good job in transition. They just soundly beat us.”

Thomas and senior forward Quincy Pondexter led UW with 17 points apiece. Junior forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning added 12 points and nine rebounds, while junior forward Justin Holiday had seven points and 10 rebounds, but was a dominant force on the defensive end.

“We did a great job defensively this time around with the addition of Justin Holiday,” Pondexter said. “I think it made it so much easier on all of us to get our job done.”

The Sun Devils were just 7-of-17 from 3-point land. ASU was also hurt by their inability to make free throws, going just 9-of-20 from the line.

“We really wanted to take them off that 3-point line, which they are so good at, and make sure they had tough, contested shots each time,” Pondexter said, according to UW media relations. “Our team did a tremendous job of buckling down on the defensive end, and that was the difference today.”

After not playing a single minute on Thursday against Washington State, Walker led ASU with 14 points off the bench. Junior guard Ty Abbott was the only other Sun Devil in double figures with 10 points.

The battle between ASU senior guard Derek Glasser and the Huskies has been well-documented, and UW did a great job taking the injured point guard out of the game. Glasser was held to just two points, took just two shots and had five turnovers.

“We wanted to take him out of the game,” Thomas said, according to UW media relations. “He starts everything, and if you can take a player like that off, then they have to go to the next guy. We did a great job on him and McMillan.”

Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu