At least for the time being, the ASU women’s basketball team looks like it’s gotten its swagger back.

And in staying true to the style of coach Charli Turner Thorne, the positive results are stemming from the defensive end of the floor.

Two days after holding Oregon, the nation’s highest-scoring offense, 19 points below its season average in a 73-68 win, the Sun Devils held Oregon State to its second-lowest scoring output of the season in a 56-47 victory Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena.

“It started with just [the players] giving themselves over to the team and understanding the importance of their team defense to be successful in this conference,” Turner Thorne said. “They played with more energy and passion, and they’re coming together as a team. It takes time, and they are making great strides.”

After starting the conference season 0-3, including a blowout defeat at the hands of UCLA at home and its first loss to Washington since 2004, ASU has rebounded with three straight wins to get back into the Pac-10 mix.

“It’s so noticeable,” ASU senior guard Danielle Orsillo said of the team’s attitude change. “We’re getting ‘it’ — how hard you have to play — and it’s really awesome. It’s been such a journey to get to this point, and we’re just clicking on the defensive end right now.”

The Sun Devils (11-6, 3-3 Pac-10) were able to notch the win without sophomore center Kali Bennett, who was suspended by the Pac-10 for one game for throwing a punch in the second half of the UO game. Oregon junior guard/forward Victoria Kenyon, who was ejected from that game, was also suspended one game for the same reason.

But the ASU guards were there to pick up the slack and combined for 46 of ASU’s 56 total points.

“We’ve really relied a lot on our inside game a lot this year, so I thought a real positive was our perimeter scoring,” Turner Thorne said. “Tenaya [Watson] and Danielle [were] attacking the basket, [and] Alex [Earl] and Deja [Mann were] hitting outside shots. I’ve been talking about that we want to get some balance.”

Orsillo set a season high of 20 points, with none of them coming on 3-pointers. Watson finished with 12 points and Earl added 11.

“Teams are playing my [3-point] shot now,” Orsillo said. “I saw an opening, so I just drove it. My pull-up was there, [and] when they didn’t step up on defense, I’d just take an open layup. That’s part of my game that I’ve really worked on, because I don’t want to just be an outside shooter and a pull-up shooter. I just want to be a scorer.”

The Sun Devils led by as many as eight points in the first half when a layup by Orsillo made the score 16-8 at the 7:36 mark, but the Beavers (9-6, 1-4 Pac-10) cut that deficit to 24-21 at the break.

ASU’s then used an 11-4 run, which was sparked by back-to-back 3-pointers from Earl, to build a 39-29 advantage with 11:36 remaining.

“I’m out there to do my role, and that’s defense, rebounding and hitting open shots,” Earl said. “My teammates did a good job of getting me open. I came off screens, [and] they went to [double-team] Becca [Tobin]. I happened to be open, so I need to be able to make shots.”

That double-digit lead dwindled to three points when OSU junior guard Talisa Rhea scored seven straight points, but the Sun Devils answered with a 17-5 run to push that advantage back up to 56-41 with 2:55 to play.

Tobin did not score but recorded eight rebounds and six blocks while logging increased minutes to make up for Bennett’s absence.

“Becca’s just exhausted,” Turner Thorne said. “This was not a great game for Kali to be out and Joy [Burke] to be coming off an injury. She was a trooper. She had some huge blocks, I thought, in the second half, and then she’s our best rebounder. I think she gave us everything she could.”

Rhea finished with 20 points for OSU, but she did not get much help from her teammates, as no other Beaver scored more than seven points.

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu