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Stockton, Calif. • The inexperienced and often-erratic BYU basketball team added another twist to its season of surprises on Saturday afternoon in what coach Dave Rose called its most complete road performance in months.
The Cougars scored 62 points, but still won convincingly. Imagine that.
Eric Mika posted his seventh-straight double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds, TJ Haws added 16 points and carried the Cougars offensively in the first half, and Nick Emery provided a big spark in the second half before leaving the game with a knee injury. It added up to a 62-47 win over Pacific in front of 4,311 at Spanos Center.
"I think that this is the best we've played from start to finish on the road, outside of our building," Rose said.
It was a big step up from last Saturday's 88-75 loss at San Diego, and improved the Cougars' record in WCC games to 6-2, and 15-6 overall. Pacific, which was held to 31 percent shooting, dropped to 2-6 in league play, 8-13 overall, in coach Damon Stoudamire's first season.
"I thought that we were dialed in, focused in, and playing with urgency on attack for the full 40 minutes," Rose said. "That's a good start for us."
Rose didn't elaborate on the "few little things" the Cougars did differently in preparing for the road game, "but the main thing is we played differently," he said. "After last Saturday night, the guys were were pretty low. This week's been good, though, and we got another challenge next week."
It was BYU's lowest scoring output of the season, but nobody was complaining outside the makeshift classroom/locker room at Spanos. The Cougars shot 43 percent, but held the Tigers to 31 percent. It was the fewest points a Rose team has given up since it held San Diego to 33 last season.
"The defense was good," Mika said. "We did a good job of guarding the ball as a team, especially against some of their good drivers like [T.J. Wallace] and [Ray Bowles], both really good offensive players."
Bowles led Pacific with 14 points, but needed 15 shots to get there, and Anthony Townes added nine despite foul trouble.
The Tigers, who led No. 4 Gonzaga here well into the second half on New Year's Eve, stayed in it by crashing the offensive glass and scoring 18 points off 14 BYU turnovers. Pacific had 14 offensive rebounds — but only eight second-chance points — and Rose wasn't too concerned because of the way the Cougars continued to hustle and fight hard for every loose ball.
"We were aggressive, really aggressive," he said. " think that it is hard to stay in front of those guys — they are really strong and physical drivers. And when they got in there, I thought we gave good help and had good rotation. We only gave up a couple easy, free looks at the rim, and the rest of them were contested all night long."
With Haws scoring 10 first-half points, the Cougars used a couple of 9-0 runs sandwiched around a dry spell to take a 29-22 lead at the break.
Pacific scored the first five points of the second half while BYU misfired on its first three possessions. Then Emery, held scoreless in the first half hit a pair of 3-pointers and a 2-pointer in a 90-second stretch before the play in which he was injured, a fastbreak layup. The first 3-pointer extended Emery's school record of at least one trey in 30 straight games.
Haws, who was 6 for 11 and had five assists, said BYU's practices this week were better than the week before, when it struggled to put away San Francisco and then fell at San Diego as 12-point favorites. It was coming off a 99-70 demolition of Pepperdine.
"I think every game we win gives us confidence moving forward, and the more confidence this team has, the more dangerous we are," Haws said. "So I think that's a good confidence-booster for us, and we are going to get back in on Monday and look for another good week."
Held 22 points below their scoring average in the slow-paced game where they made just eight free throws, the Cougars had balanced scoring, as Elijah Bryant scored nine and Yoeli Childs had seven points and 14 rebounds.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Storylines
R Eric Mika records his seventh-straight double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
• TJ Haws adds 16 points and freshman Yoeli Childs grabs 14 rebounds.
• Nick Emery suffers a knee injury in second half.