This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Provo • With the pace of the game much to their liking, the BYU Cougars own a 44-35 lead over Mercer on Monday night at the Marriott Center in an NIT second-round game.
Brandon Davies scored 15 points in the first half, and Matt Carlino added 13.
Both teams shot well from 3-point range, as BYU made 6 of 10 long-range shots and Mercer made 5 of 8.
The Cougars couldn't have asked for a better start, as Carlino hit a pair of 3-pointers and Brock Zylstra added another to give them a quick 11-3 lead.
Shots kept dropping for BYU over the next 10 minutes, and when Nate Austin made a layup, the Cougars had a 28-11 lead with 8 minutes, 55 seconds remaining in the half.
But Mercer found its stride after that, and the Bears crawled back into the game.
A couple 3-pointers by Langston Hall spurred the uprising, and Mercer trimmed the big deficit to four, 32-28, with just more than four minutes left in the half.
Five straight points by Davies righted the Cougars, however, and they took a nine-point lead into intermission.
Twitter: @jaydrew