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MORAGA, Calif. — During the half following a pregame ceremony that unveiled the retired jersey of Saint Mary’s standout and BYU tormenter Matthew Dellavedova hanging in the rafters, the Cougars appeared to be headed toward an eighth road loss.

BYU trailed by 10 at the break after allowing SMC to shoot 14-of-28 from the field, and the Gaels also held the lead in assists, rebounds and second-chance points.

Freshman Eric Mika had already been whistled for three personal fouls, and junior Nate Austin and freshman Luke Worthington each had two.

The Cougars were 0-for-5 from 3-point range and had made just 1-for-6 on free throws.

However, in a season where foul trouble and questions surrounding BYU’s depth have created a need to make frequent in-game adjustments, the Cougars owned the second half.

“The biggest adjustment was we went to zone,” head coach Dave Rose told Greg Wrubell and Mark Durrant in a postgame interview on KSL NewsRadio. “It was all pick-and-roll and we were a little bit late recovering from help off of the ball-screen. So we went in that zone to make them make a shot and it became pretty effective.”

BYU was able to extend its zone and get into passing lanes because its defensive approach made the SMC offense tentative with players standing around, Rose said.

The Gaels managed to shoot just 8-for-25 (32 percent) after the halftime intermission, while the Cougars went 12-for-21 (57.1 percent).

Junior Tyler Haws scored four of his game-high 18 points on back-to-back baskets before he found junior Matt Carlino in transition to tie the game 53-53 with 3:46 left.

Coach, after our loss at Pacific, brought us together and talked about why we play this game. We play it because we love it and we play it because it's fun. … He definitely inspired all of us to just go out and play as hard as we can. –Tyler Haws

“Coach, after our loss at Pacific, brought us together and talked about why we play this game,” Haws told Wrubell and Durrant. “We play it because we love it and we play it because it’s fun. … He definitely inspired all of us to just go out and play as hard as we can.”

Austin secured a rebound after a Gaels’ miss on their subsequent possession and tipped in Carlino’s miss to give BYU its first lead since it led 2-0.

“We kept saying that it’s going to come down to a hustle play,” said Haws, who played all 40 minutes.

Sophomore Kyle Collinsworth, who does a little of everything for the Cougars, fouled out just moments later, and SMC was able to tie the game. Collinsworth fell awkwardly on his right leg in the first half and played through pain to finish with 14 points, six rebounds and three assists.

“It seems like every time you’re on the road you have to overcome something,” Haws said in his interview.

Despite Austin missing one of two free throws and Carlino misfiring on the front end of a one-and-one in the final minute, BYU forced four turnovers in the final 4:30 and SMC hit only one field goal over that span.

Carlino and junior Skyler Halford each converted a pair from the stripe to seal a 60-57 win. The Cougars were a more respectable 10-for-13 at the line in the second half and junior Anson Winder sank a 3-pointer to make sure BYU wouldn’t be blanked from behind the arc.

Mika, Austin and Worthington combined to commit only foul after the break. Austin’s aforementioned heroics helped the Cougars take the lead, but it may have been Mika’s block, which Rose called “a really big momentum play,” that changed the tide.

Saint Mary’s held a 6-point edge at the time and Matt Hodgson thought he had an easy dunk before Mika sent him back with the ball caroming off Hodgson out of bounds.

BYU outscored the hosts 22-13 the rest of the way.

ESPN.com senior bracketologist Joe Lunardi now has the Cougars back in his projected field of 68.

There’s still a lot of basketball to be played, though, before the selection committee makes it choices March 16.

Up next for BYU (18-10, 10-5) are two home games against the only West Coast Conference teams the second-place Cougars have failed to beat this season.

Gonzaga (23-4, 15-1) will visit the Marriott Center Thursday for a 9 p.m. tip that can be seen on ESPN2, and Portland (15-11, 7-7) will be in Provo Saturday with the contest beginning at 7 p.m. The showdown with the Pilots can be seen on BYUtv, and both games can be heard on KSL NewsRadio.

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