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Provo • There have been few constants for the BYU Cougars in their six seasons in the West Coast Conference, but they can always count on blowing out Santa Clara, it seems.
That happened again on Thursday in front of a solemn crowd of 17,415 at the Marriott Center, as the Cougars momentarily took their fans' minds off the death of legendary football coach LaVell Edwards with an 89-59 thumping of the cold-shooting Broncos in the WCC opener.
"That start for our guys was big," coach Dave Rose said, noting the energy at tipoff was lacking a bit. "We challenged their guys early, got them to miss, and then they missed some open shots, and we were able to corral them and get down and score. That early separation I think helped maybe get the mood going."
It was supposed to be a good test for the Cougars (10-4), seeing as how the Broncos (6-8) upset Valparaiso in double overtime last week and feature the always-dangerous Jared Brownridge and his 20-point scoring average.
But BYU guard Nick Emery took a breather offensively — finishing with only seven points — and put the defensive clamps on the Santa Clara senior, who was 2 for 8 from the field.
"I thought defensively Nick did as good of a job as I've seen this year on Brownridge," Rose said, mentioning that Emery reminded him of how his older brother, Jackson Emery, used to play defense. "Brownridge doesn't play very many games in his career where he doesn't score in double figures."
Aside from a 7-point outing against UC Riverside, Brownridge has scored 11 or more points in every game this season, and had 25 and 30 the past two games at Washington State and Valparaiso.
Actually, all the Cougars played decent defense, as Santa Clara went 7 for 31 from 3-point range after going 12 for 28 from deep at Valpo. The Broncos finished shooting 30.4 percent.
"Our defense was great tonight," said BYU guard TJ Haws, who chipped in 17 points, six rebounds and six assists and seems to be getting more comfortable as he gets more minutes at the point guard spot. "I thought it was a good team defensive effort, which is always good for us."
The game was never close, as BYU shot 53.3 percent in the first half and rolled out to a 44-26 advantage at the break. The Cougars finished shooting 53 percent, and were 9 of 14 from 3-point range.
"We will probably shoot more threes that that in most games, but that's a good number [9 of 14], especially with where this team has been," Rose said.
Eric Mika led the Cougars again offensively, having his way inside with 19 points and nine rebounds in 26 minutes while not committing a foul for the first time this season. Making his seventh straight start, freshman Yoeli Childs picked up two quick fouls, but Jamal Aytes and Braiden Shaw filled in admirably off the bench and the Cougars didn't miss a beat. Aytes had eight points, all in the first half, and Shaw grabbed six rebounds.
"Jamal is one of those guys who will get a gold star in my book forever, because he went through so many discouraging things, and now he is at a point where he can really help our team," Rose said. "And that's all he wants to do, is help us."
Freshman Steven Beo scored 12 points, making all four shots he took.
Junior center Corbin Kaufusi made his first appearance of the season, now that football is over, to the delight of the crowd, which generally warmed up to the atmosphere and energy and filled the seats by the middle of the first half.
"Great crowd," Rose said. "My goodness, the students are gone, and by the middle of the first half it looked like every seat was full, clear to the top. So great crowd to come in here and see us win."
Then again, the opponent was Santa Clara, so that always happens. The Broncos have lost 17 games in a row to BYU, and remain the only WCC team that has never knocked off the Cougars since they've been in the league.
Twitter: @drewjay