The ASU women’s basketball team led for just 0.5 seconds in the second half against California on Saturday afternoon.

But it was for the only 0.5 seconds that mattered.

The Sun Devils rallied from 10 points down in the final four minutes, and senior guard Danielle Orsillo hit the game-winning baseline floater with less than a second remaining to lift ASU to a 63-61 victory over the Golden Bears at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, Calif.

“Right now, right where I’m at, this is a big shot,” Orsillo said. “I’m just so proud of my teammates. So many times already this year, we’ve been down and kind of just given in, and I think that this is huge for us because we were down, and all we did was focus on one possession at the time.”

The dramatic come-from-behind victory gave ASU its fifth victory in its last six games after starting the Pac-10 season 0-3 and puts the Sun Devils (13-7, 5-4 Pac-10) in a tie for fourth place at the midway point of the conference season.

“To be able to come back and be at 5-4 [in the Pac-10] right now has shown that this young team, they’re fighters,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “They’re improving, and it’s exciting to see what we can do in the second round [of conference play].”

After the Sun Devils found themselves down 59-49 following a fastbreak layup by Cal freshman guard Layshia Clarendon with 4:36 remaining, ASU outscored the Golden Bears 14-2 the rest of the way to claw back into the game and eventually grab the lead.

“I [told the team] we need to get [mad], and we need to go out there and we need to create some offense off our defense,” Turner Thorne said. “I think that they knew that they could get the game, but to actually go out there was really something.”

ASU tied the contest at 61 on a pair of free throws by junior guard Tenaya Watson with 1:11 to play, and after both teams swapped turnovers and Cal senior guard Alexis Gray-Lawson missed a 3-pointer, the Sun Devils got the ball back with a chance to win 26 seconds left.

ASU sophomore center Kali Bennett missed a shot in the paint, and a scramble for the rebound resulted in a jump ball, which allowed ASU to retain possession with 3.6 seconds left.

That’s when the hometown kid took over.

Orsillo, who hails from northern California, got the ball in the right corner on the inbound pass, pump faked and went around Cal freshman forward Gennifer Brandon and then connected on the mid-range teardrop shot.

“We wanted Danielle to take it,” Turner Thorne said. “I was a little worried, because she didn’t come off [the screen] as hard [as I wanted her to]. All the credit to Danielle in terms of just being savvy, seeing a post player on her and just giving her a quick little nod and going by her.”

That was ASU’s first and only lead after intermission, as Cal quickly broke a 27-27 halftime tie on a jumper by Gray-Lawson that ignited a 10-2 run, and the Golden Bears (11-9, 5-4 Pac-10) maintained a six- to eight-point cushion for the majority of the second half.

But the Sun Devils stayed within striking distance behind Orsillo’s scoring and the play of redshirt freshman Janae Fulcher and Bennett off the bench.

“The highlight is that we stayed positive,” Turner Thorne said. “There were maybe a few individuals that were getting a little down on themselves, but for the most part, [sophomore guard] Alex Earl and Danielle Orsillo especially, their positive energy was tremendous. They just wouldn’t let their team go there.”

Fulcher scored eight of her 12 points in the second half, while Bennett grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds, including six boards during the final five minutes.

“How about Kali and Janae stepping up?” Turner Thorne said. “If they can continue to provide us this type of play, we’re going to win some games in the second half, so I thought that was huge.”

ASU led by as many as seven points in the first half when a layup by Bennett made the score 19-12 with 9:03 left before the break, but the Golden Bears outscored the Sun Devils 15-8 for the rest of the period.

Orsillo led all scorers with 20 points while also adding four rebounds.

ASU also held Gray-Lawson, who had been averaging 30.6 points per game during Cal’s five-game winning streak, to 14 points on 6-of-20 shooting.

“Kimberly Brandon and Alex Earl did a fantastic job [guarding Lawson],” Turner Thorne said. “They just worked hard, and that’s the thing that they’re learning — you don’t really have to do anything that special. If you fall off your own screens and you’re big and you get in a stance and you’re there, you’re going to bother people.”

Gennifer Brandon scored a career-high 18 points for Cal and tacked on nine rebounds.

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu