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Stockton, Calif. • Chase Fischer scored 23 points, Kyle Collinsworth added 22 and played another masterful floor game with eight assists and five rebounds, while freshman Zac Seljaas chipped in 14 big points off the bench.

Those three played well, but BYU's most valuable player in Saturday's 81-67 win might just have been senior center Nate Austin, who scored only four points.

Austin's hustle plays, which resulted in 10 rebounds and a steal for him and several steals and/or rebounds for his teammates, paved the way for the Cougars to hold off the pesky Tigers.

Coach Dave Rose said "it will be interesting" to see how many hustle plays Austin made when he reviews the game film.

"I mean, 10 rebounds and four or five tips to someone else who probably ended up with the rebound, and then that possession ended up with a score," Rose said. "At the end of the first half we got a couple, and then the second half he challenged a couple threes, got a big block. He has really, the last three or four games, played well for us, and that can be a real bonus."

Austin did it in 28 minutes, getting his fourth-straight start.

His hustle fueled the 9-0 run the Cougars put together the final minute of the first half that saw them turn a 28-25 deficit into a 34-28 halftime lead.

Twice he kept alive BYU possessions after misses, plays that resulted in a pair of 3-pointers by Fischer.

"He was huge," Collinsworth said of his fellow senior. "Those loose balls he got … we got great shots off those. Those were huge points for us."

Fischer was thankful for the hustle, because he had been having trouble getting open prior to the scrambling 3-pointers, including one that beat the halftime buzzer.

"Those two threes put us up six and kind of took the momentum away from them and gave us more confidence coming into halftime," Fischer said. "Because that first half was choppy for us. That was big-time from Nate Austin. He made a lot of plays today where there was second-effort, offensive rebounds and that was all him. He did a great job to put us up at halftime."

The Cougars shot 36.8 percent from the field in the first halves of their five losses. They shot poorly in the first half again Saturday, 35.7 percent, but turned it around with 52 percent shooting in the second half to avert the upset.

"The rebounding was the key," Rose said. "They had us [20-17] in the first half. The second half we were a lot better."

Twitter: @drewjay