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Provo • When the BYU Cougars act like they are interested in playing defense and get some 3-pointers to drop, they are a pretty tough team to beat — especially at the Marriott Center.
The visiting Colorado Buffaloes learned that Saturday night, as the Cougars went 9 for 19 from 3-point range and took a resume-building 79-71 win in front of 13,664 at home.
BYU improved to 7-3, while Colorado dropped to 7-3 three nights after stunning No. 13 Xavier in Boulder. The Buffs were held to 38 percent shooting and made just 7 of 29 3-point attempts.
Coach Dave Rose said the win should mean something in March.
"Well, what a great night," he said. "I think it was a pretty entertaining, exciting game."
Remarkably, the Cougars did it with defense, something that was missing when they were stunned 114-101 by Utah Valley in this building two weeks ago.
"I think we're a good defensive team," said freshman TJ Haws, who had 16 points, four assists and two steals in perhaps his best all-around game as a Cougar. "What it takes is a defensive mentality. I think we had that tonight."
Fellow Lone Peak products Eric Mika and Nick Emery also scored in double figures and BYU won consecutive games for the first time in two weeks. Emery scored 20 points, while Mika had 17 despite being ill most of the week before the game.
Freshman Yoeli Childs chipped in 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, while another freshman, lightly-used Steven Beo, stepped off the bench to play 21 minutes and hit a huge 3-pointer in the second half.
"We needed to find another guy and felt like we'd give one of the guys a chance," Rose said. "Steven emerged in practice. … That three by Beo, it was really, really important."
The Cougars opened the second half on a 12-4 run and were in total control with a 52-42 lead with 15:48 remaining.
But Xavier Johnson scored 10 straight points for the Buffs, and CU took its first lead since the opening minute, 54-53, when George King made a couple free throws with 11:43 left.
Derrick White led CU with 21 points and Johnson added 17.
Trailing 62-61, the Cougars put together an 8-0 run to regain control. Haws got the run started with a 3-point play, and Emery took over from there with some nifty drives to the basket.
The Cougars led by as many as 10, then missed just enough free throws down the stretch to keep things interesting.
"It really felt like tonight was one of the best overall performances of this group," Rose said. "Every guy that played in the game gave a supreme effort."
The Cougars squandered a red-hot start after Emery, Haws and Rose all hit early 3-pointers and the Buffaloes took some time to get settled in.
Mika's 3-point play, his first points of the night, gave BYU a 24-16 lead with 9:23 remaining in the first half.
After misfiring from long range early, the Buffaloes heated up after falling behind by eight, and scored on three straight possessions to get back in it.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Storylines
R Nick Emery scores 22 points and the Cougars go 9 of 19 from 3-point range to knock of their Pac-12 visitors.
• Freshman Yoeli Childs scores a career-high 11 points and grabs 12 rebounds in the Cougars' seventh win.
• Derrick White leads Colorado with 21 points while battling foul trouble.