PROVO — BYU’s mercurial season continued Saturday afternoon at the Marriott Center — this time in the form of a stunning 77-72 loss to lowly Pacific.
The Tigers' big upset came two days after the Cougars knocked off then-league-leader Saint Mary’s. It was somewhat reminiscent of BYU’s loss at Portland last month, less than 48 hours after the Cougars knocked off Gonzaga.
BYU guard Chase Fischer called Saturday’s outcome — which snapped BYU’s 17-game homecourt winning streak — “a devastating loss.” Going into the game, the Tigers had won just six games all year.
“They made big shots. They played well,” Fischer said. “We didn’t deserve to win tonight.”
The Cougars were colder than leftover pizza, shooting 34 percent from the field for the game and 23 percent in the second half. Pacific outrebounded BYU 41-36, hit 25 of 29 free throws and enjoyed a huge edge in bench scoring, 22-0.
Did the Cougars suffer a letdown after last Thursday’s emotional win against Saint Mary's in front of a sellout crowd?
“I don't think so," Fischer said. "It’s a quick turnaround for sure. There’s a lot of emotion after Thursday, but there’s no excuse for that. We just didn’t play well. We didn’t execute. Nothing good was in that game for us. That wasn’t us. Give credit to them. Their scouting report was good. They’re physical, tough and they hung in there. We just didn’t play well.”
Fischer (23 points), Nick Emery (13 points) and Kyle Collinsworth (nine points, 12 rebounds) combined to shoot 10 of 37 from the field. As a team, BYU made 5 of 23 from 3-point range. Kyle Davis, meanwhile, scored 21 points on 8 of 11 shooting.
“They guarded us well. They’re physical, big, strong, athletic guys,” said coach Dave Rose. “In the second half, we had a really hard time putting the ball in the basket.”
The Cougars (17-8, 8-4) lost to a Pacific (7-15, 5-7) team that scored 43 points in a loss last Thursday at San Diego.
Alec Kobre scored 17 points and T.J. Wallace chipped in 15 Saturday for the Tigers and they combined to hit five 3-pointers while D.J. Ursery (nine points), Tonko Vuko (eight points) and Eric Thompson (eight points) also made big plays.
“On defense, I think they wore us down on some of their stuff,” Fischer said. “Give credit to them. They hit a lot of shots.”
“They had a really good game plan. We were off to a good start and shared the ball well, but defensively we were a step slow,” Rose said. “That’s what they do. They isolate you and get you into the matchup they want and attack you … I saw guys that were getting challenged right at the point of attack. They were more aggressive at the point of attack than we were.”
BYU led by five, 43-38, with 16 minutes left in the game, but the Tigers refused to fold, hitting timely shots before retaking the lead, 49-48, with just under 11 minutes to go.
The two teams traded leads over the next several minutes. BYU’s last lead, 60-59, came with 3:50 remaining. The Cougars made only one of their final six field goal attempts.
“We had a hard time with contested shots and with open shots we couldn’t convert on,” Rose said. “It’s really hard to win games shooting 33 percent from the field. Then we got frustrated and missed some free throws … They kind of overwhelm you. If we could have made a handful of baskets in the second half and changed things that way, that would have really helped us. We just couldn’t get anybody going.”
The Cougars went through a stretch in which they missed five straight free throws while one more free throw was waved off due to a lane violation.
“If we hit a couple of free throws late that would have changed things, too,” Rose said. “It wasn’t our night.”
The Tigers came up big at the free-throw line, hitting 13 in a row and 18 of their final 19.
“They were really consistent,” Rose said of Pacific. “They’ve come close so many times (this season). You swing enough, you’re bound to hit something. (Pacific coach Mike Burns) got one tonight. A pretty good one.”
In the first half, BYU took a 16-9 lead after a Davis dunk, then Pacific hit five 3-pointers during an eight-minute stretch to take a 26-23 lead. The Cougars led the Tigers at halftime, 34-32, but the 16,069 fans in attendance hoping that BYU would snap out of its malaise were disappointed in the second half.
“We didn’t execute. We didn’t play well,” Fischer said. “They played well. That’s pretty much it.”
BYU visits San Francisco Thursday night.
EMAIL: jeffc@deseretnews.com