Another long, lonely night on the road.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

TEMPE, Ariz. - Oregon didn't try to evade the obvious, but then, maybe the Ducks are getting too used to this to try that.

A Thursday 62-54 loss to Arizona State was no way to open the Pac-10 season.

"We wanted to get off to a good start on the road," Bryce Taylor said, "and we felt that was a team we could beat."

As if Saint Mary's, Nebraska and Oakland weren't.

"This is the fourth game we've given away this year," Malik Hairston said.

And why is that?

"If we could have put our finger on it, it wouldn't have happened again," Hairston responded.

But oh, it did, as the Sun Devils (11-2, 1-0) scored eight consecutive points to break away from the game's last tie and hand the Ducks (9-4, 0-1) their third loss in the past four games.

Chalk this up to any number of reasons.

Some Oregon mistakes defensively.

Impatience against the ASU zone defense, which contributed to 2-of-17 shooting on three-point attempts by the Ducks. Plus, 16 turnovers, including two on inbound passes in the final two and a half minutes.

"Our players have got to play," Hairston said. "Our vets, our starters, we've got to make plays. It's as simple as that."

There's this simple fact, too: While the turnout of 7,690 in Wells Fargo Arena helped push the Sun Devils through some tough spots, this is one of the few venues in the Pac-10 where a visiting team, if it is of postseason quality, should expect to win.

The Sun Devils, if talented, are young. And playing them early is usually the way to start the Pac-10 season. ASU had gone 1-8 in its previous nine opening games of the conference season.

This was only ASU's fourth win in its past 20 conference openers. And Oregon lost?

Now the Ducks have to go to Arizona on Saturday, and beyond that, the jaunt to Washington and Washington State is always a challenge - and there are still two trips to California to be made.

"It doesn't get any easier," Taylor said.

It could be that some of those future opponents will even take a tip from the Sun Devils and throw more zone defense at Oregon.

"Something we've struggled with all year is playing against a zone," Taylor acknowledged. "Teams are going to watch film and put it on us more."

At times, the Ducks found success by going inside to either Maarty Leunen or Frantz Dorsainvil, who were a combined 8-of-12 from the field. That seemed to open up driving lanes for other Ducks, or easier shots on the inside.

But when the Ducks didn't go into the middle of the zone, they were left playing catch on the perimeter with the shot clock running down, and missed 15 three-pointers, including Tajuan Porter with no success on all seven of his attempts.

"It wasn't like they were out there taking your shots away," UO coach Ernie Kent said. "We're struggling to shoot the ball a little bit.

"I thought we had some good looks, but I thought we took some bad shots at times. We maybe got a little bit antsy to shoot the ball. Their defense is part of it but a lot of it is on us as well."

Yes, there is that. And not just with the shooting. There were too many times when the Ducks didn't make the smart play, and it wasn't only freshman Kamyron Brown throwing a couple of passes where teammates had been when he last looked.

Late in the first half on consecutive possessions, the Sun Devils were about to have the shot clock run out, but each time, freshman James Harden, who led ASU with 20 points, faked Hairston into the air and drew fouls on wild three-point attempts. He made five of the six free throw attempts out of that.

"The first one I definitely fouled him," Hairston said. "The second I thought was a tough call."

Either way, it helped ASU come back from as much as a 10-point deficit to be within 30-26 at halftime.

"Those two plays, I thought were huge," Kent said. "We had a chance to go in (to halftime) with a 12-point lead and maybe put more pressure on a young team."

The Ducks had the lead back to 42-36 with a 10-0 spurt early in the second half, but added one field goal in a span of six minutes as ASU drew even at 44-44 before Hairston's three pointer gave Oregon its last lead with six minutes remaining.

All that was left were more Oregon turnovers, more missed jump shots by the Ducks and a parade of Sun Devils to the free-throw line.

It all left Kent suggesting there might be lineup changes by Saturday, and the Ducks trying to find a way to change their mood.

"We've got to continue to play with confidence," Hairston insisted.

"If we sit here and pout about this one, if we don't have our spirit and our energy (by Saturday), the same thing will happen."