The BYU men’s basketball team defeated Pacific 62-47 at the Alex G. Spanos Center on Saturday afternoon.
Eric Mika scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds en route to posting his seventh consecutive double-double while TJ Haws had 16 points and five assists.
“I thought we were so good together in everything we did,” said BYU head coach Dave Rose. “I thought our pace offensively was good and our spacing was good.” I thought our guys communicated on both ends. They were talking to each other. There are so many factors that are going into trying to have a good group able to go out on the road and win games.”
Both teams started cold from the field, with Pacific jumping out to 7-6 lead early in the first half.
After that, an 11-1 BYU run opened the game up. But Pacific responded with a 9-0 run of their own to tie the game at 17-17 with 5:48 left in the half.
An 11-0 BYU run ensued while Pacific kept things close with a 5-1 run to finish the half.
Pacific kept the streak of runs going, opening the second half with consecutive buckets to cut the Cougars’ lead to two.
Then Nick Emery extended his BYU record of consecutive games with a made 3-pointer to 30, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers as part of an 8-0 BYU run.
A scary moment followed, as Emery landed awkwardly after a contested layup attempt. The BYU guard remained on the baseline for a while before being helped by a trainer to the bench with an apparent left leg injury. He did not return to the game.
“We’ve got our fingers crossed,” Rose said. “He’s got issues in that left knee and we’ll see.”
The Cougars held tough after that, trading buckets with Pacific before a 15-3 run, capped by two Mika dunks, put BYU up for good.
With the win, BYU improves to 15-6 overall, 6-2 in conference play. Up next the Cougars will hit the road again to take on Santa Clara at the Leavy Center next Thursday. Tip off is set for 9pm MST. Earlier in the day, the BYU women’s basketball team defeated Pacific 68-50 at the Marriott Center behind 23 points from junior guard Cassie Broadhead.
