MIAMI — Sour. Bitter.

It was anything but sweet for the ASU men’s basketball team on Sunday, as it fell 78-67 to No. 3 seed Syracuse.

The Orange was bigger and better. Simple as that.

“I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity that I had to coach these guys this year,” ASU coach Herb Sendek said. “It was a great journey. Today I think we tip our hats to an outstanding Syracuse team.”

The Orange set the tone in the first half with their bruising front line. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim went with his big starting lineup, putting a pair of 6-foot-9-inch forwards on the low block.

ASU senior forward Jeff Pendergraph said facing Arinze Onuaku (275 pounds) and Rick Jackson (240 pounds) were “hands down” the best frontcourt he had ever faced.

“Onuaku is a big boy, man,” Pendergraph said. “He’s like a 7-foot Ray Lewis. It’s madness.”

Onuaku (12 points) and Jackson (13 points) were two of Syracuse’s five players to score double-digits. The Orange was led by junior guard Eric Devendorf, who scored a game-high 21 points. He also played a huge role in Syracuse’s second-half run that effectively sealed the game.

After getting dominated for the entire contest, the Sun Devils made things interesting in the second half. ASU sophomore guard Ty Abbott nailed a 3-pointer at the 6:37 mark to cut his team’s deficit to 61-57. It capped off an 8-0 run that vaulted ASU back in contention.

“It never should have got to four,” Boeheim said. “We had that one stretch where we didn’t score. It wasn’t our defense [responsible]; we didn’t score.”

Abbott’s three was also a precursor to Syracuse’s game-changing 9-2 spurt, though. The run started off with a three from Syracuse junior guard Andy Rautins. Boeheim called it the shot that won the game.

ASU junior center Eric Boateng hit a pair of free throws to bring the Sun Devils within five, but Devendorf erased them with 3-pointer at the other end. Then he hit another, this time from the corner.

Judging by his reaction, Devendorf knew he had punched his team’s ticket to the Sweet 16. Devendorf just posed there, holding his gooseneck follow-through from behind the arc. It gave Syracuse a 70-59 lead with just more than 4 minutes to play.

All the while, Pendergraph was sitting on the bench. He couldn’t do anything about it. That’s because he fouled out with more than 10 minutes left in the game.

“I’m surprised I didn’t kick something and get ejected,” Pendergraph said. “That was the worst ending I could have had to my senior year. It’s not like there was a minute left, there was like 10. … I felt like I should have grabbed a coloring book or something to occupy my time.”

Pendergraph finished with nine points and two rebounds in his final game in the maroon and gold.

ASU found it nearly impossible to penetrate Syracuse’s 2-3 zone in the first half. Twenty of the Sun Devils’ 26 first-half field-goal attempts came from behind the arc.

ASU managed to score just two points in the paint in the first half to Syracuse’s 25.

“They do a great job of protecting the paint,” Sendek said. “Given our personnel and the way we matched up against Syracuse, [the 3-pointer] was probably the best card we had to play today.”

Abbott and sophomore forward Rihards Kuksiks excelled from 3-point land, going a combined 12-of-23. They scored 20 points apiece.

Meanwhile, ASU junior guard Derek Glasser’s recent string of phenomenal play came to an end. He finished with just three points on 1-of-8 shooting.

After the game, ASU sophomore guard James Harden shouldered some of the responsibility behind his team’s first-half struggles. He did get more aggressive in the second period, but said he shouldn’t have waited so long to try and penetrate.

“Harden did nothing,” Boeheim said. “He was really passive. And tonight when he was on the perimeter, we weren’t concerned. If anything, we were going to let him shoot the three over [Glasser, Abbott and Kuksiks].”

The Sun Devils trailed 41-32 at the half, as Harden went scoreless in the first 20 minutes. For the tournament, Harden went a combined 3-of-18 for 19 points.

“I don’t know what it is,” Harden said of his poor play. “I felt great. It was just one of those games or two where my shot didn’t fall. … Today was just an overall bad day.”

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