It was ugly. It was quite chaotic, and it ended, fittingly with an airball.

If you watched the first half, it was nothing new.

Trailing the Arizona State Sun Devils (12-5, 3-2 Pac-12) by three, the Oregon State Beavers (11-5, 3-1) looked like they had for most of the game — save a strong late push — on their final 12-second possession: Clueless.

ASU, seemingly, had six, maybe seven defenders on the court as the Beavers tossed the ball from side to side without hope of a quality shot attempt.

That kind of suffocating defensive effort — one that produced a 39 percent shooting night for the Beavers — culminated in a much-needed Arizona State win, 70-67 Thursday night at Wells Fargo Arend, behind 10 points and 13 rebounds from senior forward Zylan Cheatham.

“I loved our effort,” head coach Bobby Hurley said. “Our effort, our intentions, how we guarded in the first half, it was excellent. We didn’t play the best offense in the first half, but the defense was really good and kept us in the game.”

For context, OSU ranks 83rd in KenPom adjusted offense and shoots 46 percent from the field and 32 percent from distance on the season. So, the Beavers aren’t an incredible offensive team, but ASU’s performance on the defensive side of the ball was still arguably its most impressive of the season.

The defense has come-and-gone this year for the Sun Devils. An argument could be made that it’s been the difference between the best and worst versions of this year’s team; in two of ASU’s three “bad” losses, they’ve allowed opponents to shoot over 50 percent from the field.

Just five days prior to Thursday’s win, the Sun Devils watched Stanford light it up to the tune of 53 percent field-goal shooting, 39 percent three-point shooting and a 14-point win. Utah, which came into Tempe and defeated ASU by 10 on Jan. 3, shot 53 percent from beyond the arc.

But in arguably the Sun Devils’ best night of the season prior to Thursday — their 83-61 win over a solid Colorado side — ASU’s defense was stifling. The Buffaloes shot 32 percent from the field and made just five of their 26 triple tries.

Starting to see the difference?

“It was kind of the mindset of playing together and playing with great energy,” Hurley said. “I think our ball pressure from (Luguentz Dort) and (Remy Martin) and (Cheatham) was very good to just not let them feel like they could get in rhythm on offense.”

ASU’s uptick in defensive prowess became apparent very early on; after allowing a quick 10-4 burst in the first five minutes, the Sun Devils held Oregon State to just 12 more over the remaining 15 of the first half During that ice-cold span, the Beavers made just three of 27 shot attempts.

But the Sun Devils’ lockdown defense didn’t stop there. Once the second half started, it took the Beavers nearly another five minutes just to score their first points on a Tres Tinkle triple, by which point ASU had pushed its lead to 15.

For Hurley, that was a major point of emphasis; it’s no secret that the Sun Devils have struggled coming out of the break. Saturday, ASU spotted Stanford a 14-0 run to start the second half. Against Utah, the Sun Devils watched their four-point halftime lead turn into a 12-point deficit in the blink of an eye.

Thursday night was ASU’s turn to fly out of the gates. Largely due to the defensive carry-over, the Sun Devils ripped off a 9-0 run to take a 40-22 lead before Tinkle’s triple.

“The first five minutes (of the second half) I thought was excellent,” Hurley said. “Just the way we came out of the locker room, we talked about that after Stanford, just not playing well to start the second half, and guys responded very well.”

But that shot got something going. Suddenly, OSU found life. It took quite a while for the Beavers to claw their way back, but eventually, they were back within a possession by the two-minute mark, largely thanks to a 7-of-15 second-half clip from deep.

ASU stiffened back up on defense when it mattered most, fending off the Beavers last few go-ahead and game-tying attempts, but Remy Martin was clear — and he was right. That game, despite how much the Sun Devils led at one point, could have ended very differently if a couple more shots fall or a couple more balls bounce differently.

“We got lucky,” Martin said. “But at the end of the day, all that matters is that we got the win. That’s all that matters. We were up, we were up a good amount, we have so much to learn from the film on where we get away.”

And at the end of the day, ASU had better be glad it was able to fend off Oregon State’s late run. For a team that knows all too well that it can’t keep going 1-for-2 on weekends if it wants to see the postseason, avoiding a loss on the front end of a key home weekend was huge.

It’s not nearly enough to consider the Sun Devils as fully back on the right track, but it’s a great start. At the very least, ASU proved it can win a close, grind-it-out game in the Pac-12.

But that can’t be enough. According to Martin, it won’t.

“We have a lot to learn from today,” he said. “We have to do a better job closing them out. They’re a great team, they hit tough shots, but at the end of the day, great teams put their foot on their throat.”