It wasn’t meant to be.

With the Pac-10 Conference lead up for grabs, the No. 14 ASU men’s basketball team lost a 73-70 overtime heartbreaker to No. 21 Washington in Seattle.

The fact that the game went into overtime was remarkable in itself.

In the closing seconds of regulation, the Sun Devils trailed 61-59. ASU sophomore guard James Harden had just missed a running layup with about 20 seconds left and the Sun Devils had their backs to the wall.

Harden made up for it, though, by stealing the ball from UW’s Justin Dentmon near the UW free-throw line. He dunked it down hard with 13 seconds left to send it to overtime, but ASU would never even the score after that.

With about 9 minutes left in regulation, ASU (21-6, 10-5 Pac-10) committed a couple of key personal fouls.

In a span of 16 seconds, Harden and senior forward Jeff Pendergraph each picked up their fourth fouls. They both fouled out in the extra period.

ASU coach Herb Sendek elected to send Harden to the bench for just over a minute but kept Pendergraph in the game.

But the Sun Devils didn’t crumble under the pressure, going on a 9-2 run over the next 3-plus minutes. By the time Pendergraph hit a tough basket on the low block with 5:51 remaining in the game, ASU led 53-52.

It was their first lead since 2-0.

The next few minutes of the game were just as tight as everyone expected them to be.

ASU sophomore forward Rihards Kuksiks hit a corner 3-pointer. UW senior forward Jon Brockman made a tough shot in the lane. Kuksiks responded with another corner three. UW’s Quincy Pondexter went to the line after getting hit on a layup but couldn’t convert the three-point play. Eventually, his teammate Justin Dentmon nailed a three to tie the game up at 59-59 with 1:52 left.

Up to that point in the game, Dentmon had struggled to only score five points. But he delivered another key basket with 45 seconds left in the second half, a falling layup in traffic.

That basket set the stage for Harden’s steal and dunk.

Pendergraph had a monster outing, scoring 24 points to go along with 13 rebounds. Harden finished with 19 points.

The Huskies (21-7, 12-4) had four players score double digits, led by Brockman’s 21 points. He also pulled down 11 points to notch his 14th double-double of the season.

The contest opened up at a helter-skelter pace that favored Washington’s style of play. The Sun Devils had trouble establishing any offensive momentum and committed several awful passes in the early going.

The Huskies opened up a 24-12 lead about 10 minutes into the game, but the Sun Devils gained some footing to cut their deficit to 35-34 by the break.

At least Harden was being aggressive. From the jump, he asserted himself in the lane.

You think he was pumped up for this contest?

Not even 30 seconds into the game, Harden screamed in the face of his defender after making a tough layup with contact.

Pendergraph was also very active in the paint. He and Harden combined to score 28 of ASU’s 34 first-half points.

Meanwhile, UW’s backcourt duo of Isaiah Thomas of Dentmon was held in check, going a combined 2-for-14 in the first half.

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