Trio Downs Cal State San Marcos, 79-51

BYU vs. Cal State San Marcos Box Score

PROVO—Veterans Noah Hartsock and Brandon Davies joined BYU newcomer Matt Carlino leading to a 79-51 win over Cal State San Marcos Tuesday night at the Marriott Center.

The trio scored 53 of BYU’s points. Carlino ended with 19 points, Hartsock had 20 and Davies netted 14. CSUSM, now 6-8, gave BYU, now 11-3, its final tune-up for Thursday’s West Coast Conference debut.

It was one of those rare games featuring a pair of blue Cougars and two striped “zebras.” At 8:39 in the first half, a game official fell on an out-of-bounds call at center court, making it a two-man crew when he left the game with an injury.

Carlino, who scored 16 points in four-plus minutes for the home Cougars, brought most of the crowd of 13,007 to its feet when he scored his 10th point off a layup, stole the ball seconds later with seven minutes remaining and was fouled. He connected on his free throw pair to put BYU up 62-40, adding two more successful charity tosses seconds later from penetration in the paint.

"We were only up by a few points, but I felt like we should have been up by a lot more so I came in and pushed hard," Carlino said.

The rout over the visiting Cougars was on in the second half following Damarcus Harrison’s dunk and another Carlino trey, reflecting a 69-42 margin.

"We started really sharing the ball," coach Dave Rose said. "Passing up a good shot for a better shot has kind of been our motto and it makes it a lot easier to do that when your guy are making their shots. You've got to have confidence in the next guy and once we got rolling the confidence built and we felt better about making that extra pass."

BYU’s dominance started from Davies’ initial follow-up tip-in after he controlled the opening tipoff and blocked the first field goal attempt.

"It's all about effort," Davies said. "I just try and play hard and whatever happens happens, but as long as we play hard and give a good effort we try not to focus on individual points."

Davies had his second double-double of the season by halftime with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

When Davies first went to the bench, Brock Zylstra remained as the lone starter on the floor. Zylstra and foul-plagued Carlino nailed key three-pointers to loosen up the packed paint where BYU cashed in on 16 first-half points.

BYU’s double-digit lead didn’t come until 7:10 when Hartsock hit a pair of free throws favoring BYU, 21-10.

CSUSM collapsed on Davies, so he bounced a clever assist to Hartsock, who jammed his 10th point with the clock showing 2:54 and a 30-14 lead. Davies got his 10th point when he returned BYU’s double-figure lead at 32-21. CSUSM closed the first half score to 32-23.

It was a rough start for CSUSM, not counting the two blocked shots; it went two minutes before it had a shot reach the rim. The visiting Cougars got on the scoreboard with Aaron Chamberlain converting the second of his two free throws nearly three minutes into the contest. Then Bryan Emanuel connected on a three-pointer almost four minutes into the game, closing the gap to 6-4.

CSUSM wasn’t close to BYU until Tim Steed’s trey closed the game to 32-28 after a 5-0 run to start the second half. Hartsock hit a pair of free-throws at 14:38, giving BYU its third 10-point lead, 41-31. Hartsock scored nine of BYU’s first 13 points in the second half. Nate Austin’s layup regained the fourth 10-point advantage with 13:25, 43-33.

Davies rolling banker at 9:50 gave BYU its fifth double-figure lead, 49-38. Carlino’s back-to-back trey and inbounds steal producing a layup and opened up a 54-38 lead, which electrified the crowd following the timeout.

It was the second of a 10-game stretch against California-based schools for BYU and marked its second three-game win-streak this season. It was the first of four straight games on consecutive days for CSUSM, who plays a three-day tournament in Las Vegas. CSUSM is in its inaugural season of college basketball and lost earlier this season to San Diego State and UNLV.

The Cougar vs. Cougar matchup was BYU’s first contest against an NAIA school since Jan. 1 of this year in a 93-57 victory over Fresno Pacific in Provo, 37 games ago.

BYU opens league play on Thursday at Saint Mary’s College in a 8 p.m. PST tip on ESPN2, followed by the final home game of 2011 on Saturday when it hosts the University of San Diego at 4 p.m. on BYUtv.