The BYU men’s basketball team defeated LMU 89-81 behind Eric Mika’s 25 points on Saturday afternoon at the Orleans Arena to advance to the West Coast Conference Tournament semifinal round against the winner of tonight’s game between No. 2 Saint Mary’s and No. 10 Portland.
The Cougars opened the game hitting four of their first five 3-pointers before missing their next six attempts.
LMU would pull back and take the lead near the end of the half before BYU pulled ahead to take a 42-38 lead at the half.
Free throws and more success from beyond the 3-point arc helped the Cougars hold off the Lions, who had cut the lead to two late in the second half.
With tonight’s performance, Nick Emery joined the BYU 1,000 point club, joining teammate Mika who achieved the feat a few games ago.
The semifinal will be on Monday at either 6 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. PST.
