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Provo • BYU finally figured out a way to beat Pepperdine: large doses of Kyle Collinsworth, Chase Fischer and Nick Emery.

Those three Cougar guards combined for 56 points and BYU dropped the Waves 88-77 on Saturday night to move past Pepperdine and into third place in the West Coast Conference.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak to Pepperdine for BYU (16-7, 7-3 WCC) and avenged a 71-65 loss to the Waves last Saturday in Malibu, Calif. Pepperdine fell to 14-8 and 7-4.

"Tonight, we had that focus [we needed] the entire game, that feeling that every play, every possession, was huge," Collinsworth said.

Collinsworth led all scorers with 24 points, while Emery added 17 and Fischer 15.

It was BYU's first sellout of the season, as 18,987 attended on a night in which new football coach Kalani Sitake was introduced and gave some brief remarks at halftime.

With a rebound in the last minute, Collinsworth became the all-time leading rebounder in BYU history, passing Michael Smith, who had 922. Collinsworth also had 10 assists.

"It's surreal," Collinsworth said of the record, noting that he played power forward the last 10 games of his freshman year "and started rebounding like crazy. … It is remarkable to see it add up. I'm the best rebounding point guard in the country."

A week after scoring just 65 points in a six-point loss in Malibu, the Cougars scored 53 in the first half to take an eight-point lead at the break.

"Two teams that were kind of desperate for a win," said BYU coach Dave Rose. "We were on the good end of making a few more plays this time."

Kyle Davis added 11 points and eight rebounds and Corbin Kaufusi had 10, making 8 of 10 free throws. Kaufusi's dunk with 1:15 remaining was initially counted, but after reviewing the tape officials ruled that it got caught up in the net and popped out. By rule, that doesn't count.

"Freak occurrence," Rose said.

Four Waves scored in double figures, but none named Stacy Davis, who had 25 in Pepperdine's 75-65 win over San Diego on Thursday and was instrumental in the Waves' 67-61 win over BYU here last year.

"You just gotta force him to make tough shots, and that's what we did," Collinsworth said of Davis, who had eight points on 3-of-9 shooting.

With freshman Zac Seljaas sitting on the bench, his arm in a sling to rest a shoulder contusion, freshman Jakob Hartsock hit three 3-pointers off the bench in the first half, scoring more points, nine, in the game that he had all season, eight.

"Confidence is the biggest issue here," Hartsock said. "Just grateful for the chance I got to play."

The Cougars played brilliantly on offense in the first half and led by as many as 13 points before settling for a 53-45 halftime lead. They shot 62.5 percent in the first half. Pepperdine shot 60 percent.

The Waves quickly cut into that lead in the second half, and pulled within two, 58-56, with 16 minutes remaining in the game.

However, the Cougars answered with a 13-2 run in a four-minute stretch before the under-12 minute media timeout to regain the 13-point advantage they had in the first half.

Rose wore a pink tie as a shoutout to his wife Cheryl's sister, who has breast cancer, and all the coaches wore tennis shoes as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer awareness campaign.

In his postgame news conference, Rose spoke emotionally and passionately about the need for more cancer cure funding and related that a family friend, the son of former BYU pitcher Clay Barnes, recently died due to a cancerous brain tumor.

The Cougars remain at home this week, playing league-leading Saint Mary's on Thursday and Pacific on Saturday.

drew@sltrib .com

Twitter: @drewjay