The ASU men’s basketball team has been on a record-breaking streak lately.

First came Wednesday’s 53-47 victory over UA in Tucson, which made the Sun Devils the first Pac-10 Conference team to win on the road at UCLA, at Stanford and at UA in the same season since 1980-81.

Then came Monday’s Associated Press top-25 poll.

In the poll, No. 14 ASU checked in three spots ahead of No. 17 UCLA, making the Sun Devils the highest-ranked Pac-10 team for the first time in school history.

Some may be surprised at ASU’s latest appearance in the poll, but not senior forward Jeff Pendergraph.

“It doesn’t seem that mind-boggling to me because Coach Sendek has been talking about it since he got here [before the 2006-07 season],” Pendergraph said. “It was just a matter of patience — just keep working and knowing that eventually it was going to come.”

A look at other national rankings and statistics shows ASU has some individuals near the top of lists as well.

Pendergraph has the fourth-highest field-goal percentage in the country (67.5), while sophomore forward Rihards Kuksiks leads the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (48.6).

Kuksiks is still tops in the country despite his 1-for-10 effort from behind the arc against UA.

When asked if Kuksiks’ off-night was simply a result of the ebb-and-flow nature of basketball, Sendek replied, “I hope so. He’s a really important player for us. … He’s having an outstanding sophomore season.”

As for the rest of the team — which is coming off its worst shooting performance since 1998 — Sendek had no explanation for its poor outing.

“I know they didn’t raise the baskets or make the ball bigger,” Sendek said. “Who is that lady who reads poems? [Famous fortune-teller Miss] Cleo? Some of these questions, [Miss] Cleo couldn’t even answer. How do you know some of this stuff?

“You just got to take the next good open shot, stay with it, and hope it goes in.”

ASU was among the top five in the nation in team field-goal percentage heading into the UA matchup, but has since slipped to eighth in the most recent release of NCAA statistics (49.5 percent).

The Sun Devils also rank in the top 10 when it comes to scoring defense. Their 57.8 points allowed per game is the seventh-best figure in the nation.

Washington State, which ASU will host on Thursday, features the nation’s best scoring defense at 52.5 points allowed per game.

Reach the reporter atalex.espinoza@asu.edu.