EUGENE — With a longer break between games than usual, Oregon has had a chance to recharge midway through its season and examine some changes it needs to make.

Losers of three of their last four games, all to ranked teams, the No. 13 Ducks (9-3, 7-3 Pac-12) are tightening their personnel rotations entering the second half of the season, beginning Friday night (5 p.m., Pac-12 Network) against Washington State.

Kelly Graves liked the way his team practiced to start the week coming off a 57-41 loss at Arizona last Thursday.

“They were competitive practices, the most competitive we’ve had in a while,” Graves said. “I think we’re trying. They’re engaged and I think they realize that we’ve got to be better this week. I can tell there’s been a little better focus.

“We’ve certainly put a certain unit together a little bit more this week. We’ve basically divided up our lineup most days in practice pretty much the whole year. We’ve basically set on a group that we hope that will really work for us, then I think we’ll play it by ear for the rest of the game. I don’t know if you’re going to see the same kind of revolving door but that remains to be seen. It’s still fluid in practice. We still have a lot of players that are vying for that time and competing.”

Graves didn’t have to go through the entire roster to make it clear where the demarcation is; the stats illustrate it. Te-Hina Paopao, Taylor Mikesell, Erin Boley and Nyara Sabally have each started all of UO’s 10 conference games and play the most minutes, with Jaz Shelley, Taylor Chavez and Sedona Prince not far behind and Sydney Parrish, Maddie Scherr and Angela Dugalic also making regular contributions.

With turnovers being more problematic of late, Oregon could start to lean on its more experienced players a bit more.

“We can’t turn the ball over as much,” Graves said. “We can’t deal with pressure in that way. We’ve got to be a little bit more patient offensively; I think we took some really early shots (at Arizona).”

Graves was happy with the way the Ducks played defensively in last week’s loss, but the offense was erratic.

Washington State (7-3, 5-3) pushed UO to the brink last month and its three losses have been by a combined 10 points, with two coming in overtime. The Cougars are easily the Ducks’ best win of the season to date and Friday will either be a season sweep of what so far has been a more poised WSU team, or a split that results in a fourth loss in five games for UO.