What a difference a day makes.

Following the ASU women’s basketball team’s game against lowly Idaho State on Friday night where it had to scratch and claw its way to a 65-56 win, the players held a meeting Saturday morning before their contest with Pepperdine to discuss a need for a higher level of energy.

And for a half, at least, it worked.

The No. 15 Sun Devils used a strong shooting performance from the field in the first period and a big run to close the half to build the cushion they needed to notch a 62-52 victory over the Waves at Wells Fargo Arena.

The win earned the Sun Devils a title in the ASU Classic for the eighth time in nine years.

“We just know if we bring energy, then everyone’s just going to be working off everyone else’s energy,” junior forward Becca Tobin said.

“It picks everyone up and makes people want to play hard. We all knew we had it in us, [and] we just needed to make sacrifices. People that don’t really talk just needed to scream, and that’s what we all did.”

After Pepperdine senior forward/center Miranda Ayim hit a jumper to cut ASU’s lead to 17-15 at the 7:06 mark of the first half, ASU sophomore guard Alex Earl answered with a 3-pointer in the corner that sparked a 19-4 run that allowed the Sun Devils (6-1) to take a 36-19 lead into the locker room.

“Obviously, [Friday’s performance] was not us and not OK,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “They regrouped and they’re coming together as a team more, and they’ve kind of recommitted to bringing the level of energy that we expect. I was thrilled with our first half. That’s what we need to do for two halves, and I’ll be very pleased every game.”

The Sun Devils shot 61 percent from the floor before intermission, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range.

ASU reached its largest lead of the game of 45-25 on a layup by redshirt freshman Janae Fulcher at the 16:14 mark of the second half, but Pepperdine outscored the Sun Devils 27-17 for the remainder of the contest.

“That’s definitely something we need to work on — once you establish a lead, you need to build on it, not allow them to come back,” senior guard Danielle Orsillo said. “We’re still learning [and] we’re still growing. We’re still very inexperienced, so each game we’re accomplishing something.”

An 11-0 run by the Waves (5-4) sliced the Sun Devils’ lead to single digits at 45-36 on a layup by senior forward Taylor Snider, but Pepperdine was unable to get any closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Orsillo scored 13 points and added four assists in the contest, while Tobin tallied 12 points and eight rebounds. Both players were selected to the All-Tournament team, and Orsillo was named the Most Valuable Player after tallying 31 points, six assists and four steals over the two-game span.

“It was great to see Danielle get going,” Turner Thorne said. “She’s a great scorer, and she hasn’t been quite shooting the percentage that we need her to.”

Ayim led all scorers with 15 points and also added 12 rebounds and three blocks. Sophomore guard Lauren Bell had 12 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Waves, while sophomore guard Jazmine Jackson added 11 points and four steals.

The victory against Pepperdine came less than 24 hours after the Sun Devils struggled mightily against an ISU team that had been outscored by an average of nearly 23 points per game coming into Friday’s contest.

“We’re just so inconsistent,” Orsillo said. “We’ll [play our style of defense] and it’ll work, and then we’ll relax and it’s like, ‘No, this is what we do all the time.’ That’s something we just have to learn, I guess. We’re just very inconsistent with our defense right now, and it’s killing us.”

ASU made just eight of its 25 field-goal attempts in the first half and went nearly seven minutes without scoring midway through the period. The Sun Devils trailed the Bengals 18-15 with 2:34 left in the first half before a 7-2 spurt, capped by a 3-pointer by Orsillo, gave ASU a slim 22-20 advantage at the break.

“[The players] just need to come together more and be more consistent in their position defense and more consistent in getting the right shot and the best shot for us,” Turner Thorne said. “We don’t have the luxury to come down and just waste a lot of possessions. We’re not going to outscore a lot of people, so we are trying to get this team to embrace that.”

After neither team scored for the first three minutes of the second half, the Bengals (2-7) matched their largest lead of the game of 27-24 lead on a jumper by freshman guard Morgan Wohltman at the 15:22 mark.

After the two teams were deadlocked at 27-27, 29-29, 31-31 and 33-33, ASU went on a 17-7 run to seize a 50-40 lead and take control of the game for good.

The bright spot of the ISU contest was Orsillo, who became the 20th player in school history to score 1,000 career points with her 18-point effort against the Bengals.

Tobin also chipped in with 10 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and three steals.

“Becca was awesome,” Orsillo said. “She was covering for everybody on defense — she was just everywhere.

“Her hands were all on the ball, [and] on passes that weren’t even to her player, she was tipping balls [or] she was going for the block.”

Senior forward Oana Iacovita scored 15 points for the Bengals and also grabbed five rebounds and dished out three assists.

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu.