Brigham Young dominates inside, routs Santa Clara

PROVO, Utah -- Brigham Young found the perfect way to counteract the outside shooting threat presented by Santa Clara. The Cougars set up shop around the basket and made certain they stayed in control of that area.

BYU outrebounded and outscored the Broncos down low by substantial margins to run away with a 95-78 victory Saturday. The Cougars scored 50 points in the paint compared with 30 for Santa Clara and outrebounded the Broncos, 40-26.

Brandon Davies scored 23 points and Noah Hartsock 21 to set the tone for the Cougars inside.

"We have a lot of confidence in our post guys to score the ball," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "I thought that they were really physical. I thought they did a good job of trying to get us out of comfortable spots, but we were still able to convert and score in the post."

Matt Carlino also scored 21 and Charles Abouo added 13 points for the Cougars (15-4, 4-1 West Coast Conference), who won their fourth straight conference game. Santa Clara (8-9, 0-4) remained winless in conference play despite getting 22 points from Kevin Foster and 18 from Niyi Harrison.

BYU used a 17-5 run early in the second half to create a cushion. Abouo scored a layup to ignite the run, and Davies put in a one-handed jam to bookend it and give the Cougars a 64-50 lead with 14:46 remaining.

BYU handcuffed Santa Clara by holding Foster to seven second-half points.

"When you're a great player like (Foster) is, you're going to hit tough shots," Davies said. "We just took it upon ourselves to shade him more defensively and make sure he wasn't the one that was going to beat us every time."

■ UNR 77, Hawaii 74 -- At Reno, Deonte Burton scored 25 points to lift the Wolf Pack (14-3, 4-0 Western Athletic Conference) past the Warriors.

Olek Czyz added 24 points and 11 rebounds for UNR, which won its 11th straight.

Vander Joaquin had 22 points and Joston Thomas 21 for the Warriors (10-7,
2-1), who led 70-63 with 4:48 to play before UNR went on a 10-0 run.

The Warriors cut UNR's lead to a point on a 3-pointer by Zane Johnson with 30 seconds left, but Malik Story hit two free throws with 10.5 seconds remaining to seal the victory.