It looked ominous at the start, but it ended as expected.

The No. 24 ASU men’s basketball team let Oregon hang around in the first half, but came out of the locker room on fire in the second half, finishing with a 66-57 victory in Eugene.

“It’s all about us,” sophomore guard Jamelle McMillan said in a post-game radio interview. “We focus on Sun Devil basketball when we go on the road. Ultimately, if you stick to your fundamentals and stick to what you’ve been taught, most of the time you’ll see a lot of success.”

For the first time since the season-opener, ASU’s starting lineup looked a little different.

It was missing sophomore forward Rihards Kuksiks, who hasn’t been able to practice this week because of flu-like symptoms. Junior guard Jerren Shipp started in Kuksiks’ place.

Without its best long-distance shooter, ASU sophomore guard James Harden took up the role as resident sniper.

He nailed five shots from behind the arc, en route to scoring 36 points. He also added three blocks and two steals.

“James Harden was James Harden,” McMillan said. “He showed up on both sides of the floor. We were fortunate that he was able to get his game going, and we fed off of that.”

Harden went on a personal 10-0 run that spanned halftime and gave ASU (17-5, 6-4 Pac-10) its first breathing room of the game.

After Harden scored four straight to end the half, the Sun Devils entered the locker room with a 32-27 lead. It was the biggest lead they held the entire first period.

To start the second half, Harden nailed back-to-back corner 3’s in front of the ASU bench to really get things going. The next time down the floor he dished a fast-break assist to Shipp to extend the lead to 40-27.

With just more than 11 minutes left in the game, Harden appeared to close the door on the Ducks. He received a “no look pass” from Glasser before dunking it down hard with one hand while getting fouled. By the time he hit the free throw to complete the three-point play, ASU led 49-35.

UO (6-16, 0-10) didn’t lie down, though.

The Ducks went on a 7-0 run over the next 2-plus minutes to shave the lead down to 49-42, but Harden rattled off five straight points of his own in response.

He also delivered the dagger with 3:56 left, with his final 3-pointer of the game to put ASU up comfortably, 62-47.

With the win, ASU coach Herb Sendek became the second-youngest coach to reach 300 career wins behind his good friend, Florida coach Billy Donovan.

That’s not to say the Sun Devils didn’t feel any lumps.

Glasser laid on the floor for nearly 10 minutes after getting blindsided by a screen with less than 2 minutes left in the game. The play was particularly scary because of the fact that he incurred a concussion against Washington just last Saturday.

McMillan said Glasser was alert in the locker room after the game and should be OK for Saturday’s contest at Oregon State.

The Sun Devils will make the trip to Corvallis on Saturday.

In the first matchup between the two teams on Jan. 8, the Sun Devils used a suffocating zone defense to rout the Beavers 69-38 in Tempe.

Reach the reporter at alex.espinoza@asu.edu.