Down by 17 in the first half, BYU completed the come back for a huge road victory in WCC play.
LOS ANGELES – The BYU Basketball team nearly missed their game against LMU – or so it would seem. The Cougars traveled to LA for their first road test in conference play and struggled to get things going offensively and took a thirteen-point deficit into halftime and turned it into an 81-76 win.
Eric Mika who has set the pace for the Cougars offensively this season, struggled to find a rhythm in the first half, scoring only two points and was held to 1/9 shooting. Heading into halftime, the only Cougar who seemed to have found a rhythm was Nick Emery who went to the locker room with 11 points on 3/6 shooting from the field.
Finding momentum in the second half, BYU scored 47 points on 50% from the field while holding LMU to 29 points and forced the Lions to turn the ball over 6 times. Mika picked up the pace scoring 15 points and went 9/11 from the charity stripe in the second half.
LMU held the lead steady in the second half as the Cougars slowly clawed their way back.
With 8:11 left and down 58-68, BYU used a 7-0 run to further close the gap behind a field goal from Childs, free throws from Mika, and a three pointer from TJ Haws.
The scoring remained steady until BYU hit back-to-back threes from Nick Emery and TJ Haws to tie the game at 76-76 with 2:00 remaining. Building off of the tempo, Haws hit another three to give BYU the lead with :39 left in the game.
Emery and Haws both finished the game with 20 points while Eric Mika added 17 and Yoeli Childs had 15.
The Cougars will next head to Moraga to face #19 St. Mary’s on Thursday, January 5th for a late tip at 9 pm MT.
