MIAMI – Leading up to Friday’s NCAA Tournament first-round matchup against ASU, Temple senior guard Dionte Christmas reportedly said Harden accounted for “80 percent” of the Sun Devil offense.

Friday, Harden scored just nine points.

By Christmas’ logic, the Owls would have needed only 12 points to secure a Sunday date with Syracuse. Well, they scored a lot more than that on Friday and still fell short, losing 66-57.

“Well I guess we showed [Christmas] wrong today,” Harden said after the game. “It’s not just about me … I can have a bad game and guys are going to step up and make big shots.”

Seeing Harden after the contest, one would have never known he just played on of his worst games of the year.

He’s as even keel as they come. Win, lose, big game or not, you can always count on Harden to be calm after the fact.

“I think [Harden] brings balance to our relationship,” Pendergraph said. “I’m the extroverted guy and James is introverted. He’s not really like the vocal leader, that’s my role.”

Temple junior guard Ryan Brooks shadowed Harden for nearly the entire game and was largely responsible for Harden’s low scoring output.

Harden went just 1-of-8 from the floor and didn’t convert a field goal until there was 4:04 left in the game.

After being virtually invisible on offense for the first 35 minutes of the game, Harden took the game into his own hands. He was being aggressive in the lane and getting to the charity stripe like he’s done his whole career.

It was just the kind of finish ASU senior forward Jeff Pendergraph expected from his teammate. Pendergraph told reporters a paraphrased version of the pep talk he gave Harden late in the game.

“[I said] ‘This is the last four minutes of the game,’” Pendergraph said. “’We don’t need [any] dropping off, man. We need you to step up. This is what you do for us. You’re James Harden.’ And that’s what he did.”

The Pac-10 player of the year responded by reaching the foul line seven times in the last four-plus minutes of the game. Pendergraph said Harden is the most effective when he’s getting into the paint and drawing fouls.

True to form, Sendek was quick to praise Harden despite his low scoring output, citing Harden’s ability to create open looks for his teammates.

“I want [Harden] to know I have all the confidence of the world in him,” Sendek said. “But at the same time, I don’t want him feeling like he has to be Atlas and carry the globe around. Because that’s not fair to anybody, especially anybody as young as he is.”

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