Malibu, Calif. • Matt Carlino's late-game heroics carried BYU to a 63-61 win over Pepperdine on Thursday night at Firestone Fieldhouse.Carlino's free throws with 1:03 remaining gave the Cougars a 60-59 lead, and his 3-pointer with 12 seconds left sealed the win - almost. Pepperdine's Jordan Baker was fouled by Anson Winder while attempting a 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds left, and made two free throws before intentionally missing the third.Pepperdine's Stacy Davis even got a hand on the miss, but couldn't tip it into the basket, and the Cougars escaped with their seventh West Coast Conference win.The Cougars put together a 9-0 run early in the second half after trailing by 11 points at halftime to get back in the game.Tyler Haws and Anson Winder made a pair of 3-pointers each, and when Nate Austin made two free throws with 11:15 remaining, the Cougars trailed just 42-41.BYU finally caught the Waves 45-45 with 9:34 left on a basket by Davies, but Jett Raines' jumper barely beat the shot clock to give the Waves the lead again.It stayed tight from there.Another 3-pointer from Haws, with 4:34 left, gave the Cougars a 54-50 lead heading into the homestretch.But the Waves regained the lead with some nice offensive execution, and a bit of luck. Jordan Baker's desperation 3-point attempt to beat the shot clock found nothing but net with 1:10 left and gave Pepperdine a 59-58 lead.Pepperdine took advantage of BYU's horrible shooting early in the game to take a 31-20 halftime lead.Pepperdine led BYU 35-30 at halftime three weeks ago in Provo, but the Cougars dominated the second half 46-16 en route to an easy win.Not so this time.Davies had 12 points on 6-of-12 shooting in the first half, but the rest of the Cougars were 4 of 20 from the field.Pepperdine's Nikolas Skouen was 3 for 3 early from 3-point range, and his third bomb gave the Waves a 13-8 lead with 12:31 left in the first half, forcing BYU coach Dave Rose to call a timeout and adjust his defense.Skouen, who averages seven points a game, had 13 at halftime.The Cougars pulled within a point, 13-12, on a dunk by Davies, then made just one field goal in the next six minutes and fell behind by double digits, a deficit they carried into halftime.

drew@sltrib.comTwitter: @drewjay