Miami, FL (My Sportsbook) - Derek Glasser scored a career-high 22 points, as Arizona State overcame a valiant effort by Dionte Christmas to shoot down the Temple Owls, 66-57, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at American Airlines Arena.

Jeff Pendergraph also had 22 points to go along with seven rebounds for the Sun Devils (25-9), who are seeded sixth in the South Region and will face third seed Syracuse in the second round on Sunday. The Pac-10 Player of the Year, James Harden, was held to just one field goal, finishing with nine points and seven boards.

Rihards Kuksiks added eight points for ASU, which is back in the NCAA Tournament after a six-year absence.

"I'm obviously very proud of our guys, a good team effort by our squad today," said Sun Devils head coach Herb Sendek. "We have such great respect for Temple's program and the job that Coach (Fran) Dunphy and his staff does, and we knew coming in today we would have to play a very good game to be competitive. Different guys stepped up for us at different times, but most certainly Derek and Jeff had outstanding games for us and allowed us to come away with the win today."

Looking to avenge a forgettable 1-for-12, three-point performance in last year's opening-round loss to Michigan State, Christmas totaled a game-best 29 points for Temple (22-12), which gained entry into the tourney after winning the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament for the second straight year.

Lavoy Allen logged 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Owls, who have not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2001.

"I thought for us we had our moments," said Dunphy. "We had our looks. We did not take advantage of it, as we need to in a game of this magnitude and in this stage, on this stage. But again, congratulate Arizona State, and for us, we need to gather again. We'll gather next week and kind of critique the season and appreciate Dionte Christmas and Semaj (Inge) and Sergio Olmos, and thank them for their great careers, and then the rest of us will move on to try to get back here again, which is not an easy task."

The Sun Devils built a 9-2 lead on a Pendergraph layup four minutes into the contest, then Temple scored seven of the next nine points to close the gap to 11-9.

Glasser knocked down a trey from the left corner to give ASU a 29-16 lead with about eight minutes remaining, but Christmas and Ryan Brooks nailed back-to- back three-pointers as part of an 10-0 run to pull the Owls to within 29-26. Glasser then drained consecutive three-pointers to give ASU a nine-point advantage at the break.

Temple netted eight of the first 11 points of the second half, with six coming from Christmas.

Kuksiks sank a three-ball to push the lead to eight at 49-41 near the midway point of the second half, but Christmas buried a triple and hit a layup to cut the deficit to 52-49 with seven minutes remaining.

Harden's lone field goal -- a three-pointer -- upped the margin to seven before Allen made two free throws to whittle the deficit to 59-55 with about two minutes to play.

Trailing 60-55, Christmas committed a traveling violation with 44.6 seconds left, and the Sun Devils proceeded to cement the win at the charity stripe, sinking six consecutive free throws, including four by Glasser.

Game Notes

ASU shot 51.3 percent from the field and made 8-of-14 three-point attempts...The Owls were limited to 37.3 percent shooting...Temple held a slim 29-27 edge on the glass...Olmos totaled eight points and six rebounds...Harden was 1-of-8 from the floor...The Sun Devils have won five of the six all-time meetings.