The men's basketball team was looking for a win. Three games into the conference season, the UW was staring at 0-3 with a game against Arizona State as its next opportunity to get the elusive victory.

In a grind-it-out game that took 40 minutes of battling by both teams, the No. 20 Huskies found that win, topping ASU 64-53.

It was not pretty; in fact Washington (11-4 overall, 1-3 Pac-10) had not scored that low since Feb. 4 last season at Washington State.

"I'm just glad we got a win in the books," coach Lorenzo Romar said. "We need to keep getting better."

The Sun Devils (6-9 overall, 0-4 Pac-10), made it known that scoring points would not be easy. ASU coach Herb Sendek — a big proponent of ball control and the zone defense — wanted his defense to force Washington's offense to struggle, and it did.

The Huskies shot 42.6 percent from the floor and had just two players — junior Ryan Appleby and sophomore Jon Brockman — in double figures.

The ASU zone made sure that Washington's leading scorers, big man Spencer Hawes and freshman Quincy Pondexter did not get going. When the defense collapsed on the inside players, though, it opened things up for the Huskies' sharp shooter.

"They played zone the entire game," Romar said. "And [they] really paid a lot of attention to Spencer and really collapsed on him whenever he caught it. That really freed up Ryan for some really good looks from the 3-point line. Pick your poison."

When his number was called, Appleby did not miss much. With a game-high 20 points, the junior guard went 7-10 and 6-8 from beyond the arc.

In his second consecutive start at the point, Appleby also took care of the ball, a problem in the early going for the Huskies. With him in the lineup, they had just 12 turnovers, despite averaging 17.6 per game.

"I'm not coming out trying to score 30 points every night," Appleby said. "Starting at the point the last couple games I've tried to really get the ball swung, get some ball movement. Get it inside like we want to do most of the game. If you keep doing that hopefully it will rub off on the other guys."

In a game like this when scoring was a rare commodity, Romar made sure to credit his defense for their much-improved effort.

After yielding 96 points on 65- percent shooting to Arizona in its previous game, Washington locked down on the Sun Devils, allowing them to score just 53 points.

"We don't win with great offense," Brockman said. "You saw with Arizona, we could have great offense and get beat. Defense is the key."

Brockman and the rest of the team's interior defense was responsible for holding the Sun Devils to a 34.7 field goal percentage and — for the 15th-consecutive game — giving the UW an edge in the rebounding margin.

With its first Pac-10 win out of the way, Washington is now eager to go on the road to prove that the young squad can handle its opposition away from Hec Ed.

"We just have to keep fighting back," Brockman said. "This is the first step, we have to push forward."

Reach reporter Justin Chartrey at justinchartrey@thedaily.washington.edu.