MIAMI – Thursday night, a couple of the nation’s premier sophomore guards were texting each other back and forth.

The topic of discussion: a Sunday matinee.

So when the sixth-seeded Sun Devils beat No. 11 seed Temple 66-57 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday, James Harden had added incentive to be happy.

It meant he would be able to square off against Syracuse’s Johnny Flynn, as the Orange cruised to a first-round victory over Stephen F. Austin on the same floor just hours before.

“We both didn’t make the tournament last year,” Harden said. “So we wanted to come in and put on a show.”

Harden and Flynn, who have become good friends over the past couple of years through basketball summer camps, will be playing for more than a Sweet 16 berth come Sunday.

They will be playing for bragging rights.

“[Syracuse] is definitely great,” Harden said. “They have a great point guard, great shooters, great big men. They’re just an overall great team – a lot of depth, we have to be ready for it.”

ASU coach Herb Sendek said after the game that he considers Syracuse to be one of the few teams with a legitimate shot at winning the title.

With Friday’s win, Sendek ran his record in first round tourney games to 6-1 as a head coach.

The Sun Devils never trailed all game, but didn’t play near their potential. Much of that hinged on Harden, who could never get anything going against the Temple defense.

Hounded by Temple junior guard Ryan Brooks for most of the game, Harden finished with just nine points on 1-of-8 shooting.

His teammates made up for it, though, as senior forward Jeff Pendergraph and junior guard Derek Glasser scored 22 points each.

When asked how he felt after the game, Pendergraph broke out a huge smile.

“It feels pretty good,” he said. “We didn’t play the best game, it wasn’t pretty. But sometimes these feel the best at the end of the day. Guys just toughed it out. Guys came to play on a big day on a big stage.”

Pendergraph, matched up against Temple senior center Sergio Olmos for most of the afternoon, muscled his way around the paint. Olmos, who weighs 20 pounds less than Pendergraph despite being seven feet tall, had no answer for Pendergraph’s physical play.

Sendek said getting the ball inside to Pendergraph was a focus of the team’s offensive game plan.

While Pendergraph was dominating on the block, Glasser was making Temple pay on the perimeter. Glasser’s career-high scoring output before Friday was 18 points. He nearly set a new one in the first half.

Glasser entered the locker room at half with 17 points, including four made 3-pointers. Sendek said Glasser is playing the best basketball of his life right now.

“It seems like sometimes teams don’t respect Derek as a player,” Pendergaph said. “Like he can’t shoot the ball or anything. I don’t know how many times he’s gotten a three coming off of a pick-and-roll at the top of the key. That’s the easiest shot to make, it’s like a driveway shot to him.”

Sendek said sophomore guard Ty Abbott, too, is currently playing his best basketball of the season. Though he didn’t have the flashiest line (five points and five rebounds), Abbott picked up key boards throughout and a few other key deflections that really helped ASU.

“I try to start it off with the defense and the rebounding,” Abbott said. “So offense kind of comes as second, so I don’t have to think too much about it.”

He also admitted that he wasn’t mentally right during his prolonged slump that lasted the entire Pac-10 conference schedule.

ASU also received some positive news from sophomore guard Jamelle McMillan, who went through Friday’s contest with no further setbacks. He said he didn’t aggravate his groin injury and that he would be all good for Sunday’s tilt against Syracuse.

The Sun Devils led 35-26 at half, thanks to a couple of late 3-pointers by Glasser before the break. Temple slowly chipped away at the lead in the second period, cutting ASU’s lead to 52-49 with almost seven minutes left, but couldn’t get any closer than that.

Temple senior guard Dionte Christmas had a chance to tie the game near the five-minute mark, but his 3-pointer rimmed out and ASU went on to build the lead to its final margin. Christmas – the definition of a volume shooter – wouldn’t attempt another shot until the game had reach its futile closing moments.

“If you would have told us that James Harden would have ended up with nine points and I would have had 20 points and we lost the game, I would have thought you were crazy,” Christmas said.

Well, Christmas must have been really crazy after the game, because he dropped a game-high 29 points.

Sendek said his team was forced to do some unorthodox things to slow down Christmas late in the game. Christmas said he felt like ASU was giving him extra emphasis down the stretch.

“Obviously, we were very aware of [Christmas] … Having said that and patted ourselves on the back, we know we held him to 29,” Sendek said tounge-in-cheek.

Aside from Christmas, who went 8-of-16 from the field and 5-of-11 from behind the arc, Temple sophomore forward Lavoy Allen was the only other Owl to score double digits.

He scored seven points and grabbed six rebounds in the second half to total 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Temple shot just 37.3 percent for the game while ASU shot 51.3 percent. The Sun Devils are now 30-2 when shooting over 50 percent during the last two seasons and 16-1 when doing so this year.

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