This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Provo • BYU basketball coach Dave Rose rightfully credited his team's defensive effort after the Cougars snapped out of their Marriott Center funk and scratched past Weber State 77-66 on Wednesday night.
Then again, the Wildcats helped the cause as well, going a frosty 11 of 26 from the free-throw line in falling to 0-21 all-time in Provo.
Eric Mika scored 21 of his game-high 26 points in the second half and the Cougars bolted from a 47-47 tie with 12 minutes remaining to avoid falling to an instate foe on their home court for the second-straight game. Fresh in the memory of the 12,859 fans in attendance was Utah Valley's 114-101 victory last month.
The Wildcats got none of that hospitality, though, and misfired too much from the 3- and free-throw lines to end their 12-game losing skid to Cougar teams.
"I like the way that our guys competed tonight on the defensive end," Rose said. "Offensively, we've got a lot of work to do."
Against the Wolverines on Nov. 26, it was the opposite.
For Weber State, Zach Braxton had 18 points and 13 rebounds before fouling out with 6:28 remaining while trying to slow down Mika's big second half. Ryan Richardson chipped in 13 and leading scorer Jeremy Senglin had 12, but was an inexplicable 0-for-5 from the free-throw line.
The Cougars led 37-28 at halftime, but Weber State refused to go away and with 12:28 remaining Richardson hit a 3-pointer to knot the score at 47 apiece. That's when Mika took over, leading BYU on an 11-4 run that included a lob pass from TJ Haws for a dunk.
"That was sweet. I live for that, man," said Mika, who also grabbed 10 rebounds as the Cougars won the battle of the boards, 41-36.
Haws scored 12 of his 15 points in the first half. Playing limited minutes as he recovers from a sore knee, Kyle Davis added 13 points in 16 minutes, and freshman Yoeli Childs had 10 points and eight rebounds.
The Cougars attempted a season-low 11 3-pointers, making their first two and finishing with three.
"I think coach wants the threes to come inside-out," Davis said, explaining the lack of long-range shots.
It was the most physical game the Cougars have played this season and included 44 fouls. Kyndahl Hill was also disqualified with five fouls for the Wildcats.
"Both teams had the other scouted really well, so it was hard to run stuff," Rose said. "It was pretty physical - a lot of contact on both sides, and a lot of free throws, too."
That favored the Cougars, because the Wildcats were uncharacteristically awful from the charity stripe, after going 17 for 20 in the 57-55 loss to Denver last week. Senglin and Hill both missed the front ends of one-and-one opportunities when BYU started pulling away, and then Senglin missed two after the Mika's lob dunk.
The Wildcats got within 71-64 on Jordan Dallas' 3-point play with 2:14 left, but Mika scored twice on BYU's next three possessions, and Weber State went nearly two minutes without scoring.
"This Weber State team had us scouted really well, and they made a lot of things difficult for us," Rose said. "We probably made it hard on them as well."
Except from the free-throw line. The Wildcats took care of that themselves.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Storylines
P Eric Mika scores 26 points and grabs 10 rebounds as the Cougars improve to 6-3.
• Zach Braxton scores 18 points and grabs 13 boards for Weber State before fouling out.
• The Wildcats go 11 of 26 from the free-throw line, BYU goes 18 of 25.