Oregon State’s normally tight defense unraveled early Thursday night, and Stanford took full advantage. But then Cardinal had to battle the Beavers down the stretch.

Stanford snapped a three-game losing streak and started the second half of the Pac-12 season on a positive note, beating the Beavers 80-71 at Maples Pavilion.

Reid Travis had 21 of his 24 points in the first half as Stanford (12-11, 6-4 Pac-12) scored its ninth win in its past 11 meetings with Oregon State. At Maples, the Cardinal have won 22 of their past 24 against the Beavers.

“We cranked it up a bit defensively, denying just a little bit more and being a little bit more the aggressor,” head coach Jerod Haase said. “They had 13 turnovers at halftime and set the tone for our guys to play defensively.”

Stanford led by 20 (27-7), but Oregon State made a pair of 9-0 runs in the second half and cut the lead to 64-58 with eight minutes left. Dorian Pickens and Daejon Davis combined to sink nine foul shots and keep the Beavers at bay despite going more than five minutes without a field goal.

“In the first half we were flying around, getting a lot of stops,” Travis said. “I feel like in the second half we were watching the score way too much. We were like counting down the minutes for the game to be over instead of locking in and just playing basketball.”

Pickens scored 15 points for Stanford, and Davis had 12 points and seven assists.

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Davis also had the distinction of committing three fouls in a 26-second span in the second half. He had to go to the bench with his fourth foul with 10:22 left, and the Beavers took advantage of his absence, especially on defense.

Oregon State entered the evening leading the conference in scoring defense, giving up just 68.6 points a game. It also led the league in field-goal percentage defense, limiting opponents to 41.4 percent. Stanford, however, shot 56 percent.

Freshmen KZ Okpala and Oscar da Silva played well after being in doubt because of back and ankle problems, respectively. Okpala had nine points and played strong defense on Oregon State’s leading scorer, Tres Tinkle. Da Silva had eight points

Drew Eubanks had 19 points to lead Oregon State (11-10, 3-6). Tinkle, the only Pac-12 player to score in double figures in every game this year, had 18 points. For most of the night, however, the Beavers looked like a team that hasn’t won a road game in nearly two years.

Stephen Thompson Jr. and his brother, Ethan, had 10 points each.

Travis hit 9 of 11 shots in the first half as the Cardinal bolted to a 43-28 lead at the break. He even hit a couple of threes.

Travis scored 11 of Stanford’s first 13 points and 13 of its first 18. Pretty soon it was 20-3 after Davis dived for a loose ball, got the ball to Travis, got it back and laid the ball in.

Pickens credited the big first half to “great ball movement and unselfishness, searching for great shots and not settling for lesser shots.

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald