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Provo • Having watched film of Pacific coming ever-so-close to knocking off West Coast Conference leaders Gonzaga and Saint Mary's the past few weeks, BYU coach Dave Rose figured that one of these days the talented but inconsistent Tigers would finally hit one out of the park.

They finally did on Saturday afternoon at the Marriott Center, stunning heavily favored BYU 77-72 in front of 16,069 disbelieving fans to snap the Cougars' 17-game home winning streak and pretty much bury their dreams of an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.

"They have come close so many times, that if you swing enough you are bound to hit something, and [they] got one tonight," Rose said. "They got a good one."

For BYU, it was a bad one, a devastating loss that won't just damage its NCAA resume, but its chances of challenging Gonzaga and Saint Mary's for the WCC's regular-season title. The Cougars, who moved into third place with Thursday's emotionally-charged 70-59 win over the league-leading Gaels, gave all that positive energy and momentum back against the lower-level Tigers, who improved to 5-7 and 7-15 and avenged an 81-67 loss to BYU back on Jan. 2.

"We just didn't play well, didn't execute," said guard Chase Fischer, who led all scorers with 23 points, mostly on 14-for-14 shooting from the free-throw line. "Nothing good was in that game for us. That wasn't us. We didn't play. And give credit to them. Their scouting report was good. They are physical and tough, and they hung in there."

In short, the Cougars (17-8, 8-4) played lethargically at times - although neither Rose, Fischer nor Kyle Davis (21 points on 8 of 11 shooting) would blame it on having a letdown after Thursday's big win. It was reminiscent of last month's loss to Portland, which came two days after the Cougars upset No. 25 Gonzaga.

"No, I don't think so," Davis said. "We just really didn't play well. We just didn't do what we needed to do to win, and it was easy to still be excited for that game. It was a [good] crowd, and too bad that we lost for our fans right there."

Pacific won because it made 13 straight free throws in crunch time, and 18 of its last 19. The Tigers, who shoot 69 percent from the line, were 23 of 25 from the stripe in the second half.

"I think maybe that's the big fella upstairs," said Pacific coach Mike Burns. "We practice it, and maybe we've had a couple games in the last couple of weeks here where free throws have cost us at the end of the game. Tonight, our guys stepped up in a big-time environment and made big-time shots. I am just proud of them."

The Cougars can point to a quick start as evidence that their heads weren't still in the Saint Mary's win. BYU took a 16-9 lead with offense-minded freshman Jakob Hartsock making his second-straight start in place of Nate Austin, but could never shake the club that scored just 43 points at San Diego in an 11-point loss Thursday.

In the second half, though, the Cougars shot just 23 percent (7 of 30) and never led by more than five. The Cougars got zero points from their bench; Pacific got 22.

"I think they wore us down with some of their stuff. Give credit to them. They hit a lot of shots. We had chances where a lot of guys could have made plays, everyone on our team, and kind of put the game away, put the game to six or eight, where our comfort zone is, extend the lead. But we didn't make enough plays," Fischer said. "We didn't deserve to win tonight."

The lead changed hands 17 times. The Cougars led 60-59 when Collinsworth hit one of two free throws with 3:50 left, but Pacific's T.J. Wallace hit a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws to push the Tigers' lead to four, and the visitors never lost that advantage.

Alec Kobre made three 3-pointers and led Pacific with 17 points, while Wallace added 15 and was 7 of 8 from the line. The Cougars went the final 2:44 without a field goal; Collinsworth, Fischer and Nick Emery were a combined 10 of 37 from the field, as Emery's shooting slump continued from Thursday and the seniors misfired under heavy defensive pressure.

"We had a hard time with contested shots, and then the open shots we got we couldn't convert on," Rose said. "It is going to be hard to win games shooting 33 percent from the field. And then we got frustrated and missed some free throws. So all in all it is obviously a disappointing loss."

The Cougars' next three games are on the road, starting Thursday at San Francisco (8 p.m. MT, BYUtv).

Twitter: @drewjay —

Storylines

R The heavily favored Cougars shoot 33.9 percent at home and are upset by a Pacific team that had lost three straight games.

• BYU's 17-game home winning streak is snapped, and the Cougars fall to 8-4 in WCC play, 17-8 overall.

• BYU guards Chase Fischer, Nick Emery and Kyle Collinsworth combine to go 10 of 37 from the field.

Pacific 77, BYU 72

PACIFIC (7-15)

Wallace 3-10 7-8 15, Kobre 5-14 4-4 17, Vuko 3-4 2-2 8, Thompson 3-3 2-2 8, Bowles 1-4 4-7 7, Haynes 0-1 0-0 0, Ursery 1-2 6-6 9, Lampkin 3-7 0-0 6, Taylor 1-3 0-0 2, Theodorou 2-4 0-0 5, Eleraky 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-53 25-29 77.

BYU (17-8)

Fischer 3-14 14-14 23, Emery 5-15 3-3 13, Collinsworth 2-8 5-8 9, Davis 8-11 5-10 21, Hartsock 2-6 0-0 6, Seljaas 0-2 0-0 0, Chatman 0-1 0-0 0, Austin 0-0 0-0 0, Kaufusi 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-59 27-35 72.

Halftime—BYU 34-32. 3-Point Goals—Pacific 8-24 (Kobre 3-10, Wallace 2-7, Bowles 1-1, Ursery 1-1, Theodorou 1-3, Taylor 0-1, Haynes 0-1), BYU 5-23 (Fischer 3-9, Hartsock 2-5, Chatman 0-1, Seljaas 0-2, Emery 0-6). Fouled Out—Bowles, Emery. Rebounds—Pacific 41 (Thompson 8), BYU 36 (Collinsworth 12). Assists—Pacific 14 (Wallace 3), BYU 9 (Collinsworth 4). Total Fouls—Pacific 28, BYU 24. A—NA.

WCC Standings

Conference Overall

W L PCT W L PCT

St. Mary's (CA) 10 2 .833 19 3 .863

Gonzaga 10 2 .833 18 5 .783

BYU 8 4 .667 17 8 .680

Pepperdine 7 5 .583 14 9 .609

San Francisco 5 6 .455 12 10 .545

Pacific 5 7 .417 7 15 .318

Portland 5 8 .385 11 15 .423

Santa Clara 4 7 .364 8 15 .348

San Diego 3 9 .250 8 15 .348

Loyola Marymount 3 10 .231 10 14 .417

Saturday's games

Pacific 88, BYU 72

Portland 92, Loyola Marymount 78

Saint Mary's (Cal) 60, San Diego 43

Santa Clara at San Francisco, late

Gonzaga at Pepperdine, late