PROVO, Utah – Senior Charles Abouo led the BYU men’s basketball team to an 86-48 win over the Pepperdine Waves at the Marriott Center on Saturday.
Abouo led the game with a season-best 23 points on 7 of 11 shooting. He hit a career-high five three-point baskets and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds. The 38-point margin of victory was the best for the Cougars (21-6, 9-3) this year.
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“I’m really happy for our guys," head coach Dave Rose said. "I think the players worked really hard, especially this week with the bye, and it paid off. We played really well both individually and collectively.”
Junior Brandon Davies added 13 points and seven boards, while freshmen Matt Carlino and Anson Winder each contributed 10 points. Carlino also dished out six assists.
Senior Noah Hartsock moved into third on the career blocks list at BYU with three on the night to total 167 for his career, passing up Russell Larson.
The Cougars jumped out to a 12-2 lead in the first 3:22 of the game and started 4 of 4 from the field and 3 of 3 from beyond the arc. Pepperdine (8-17, 2-12) hit a three to make it 12-5, after which BYU went on a 19-2 run over the next eight minutes to take a 31-7 advantage.
Abouo led the Cougars in the opening half with 17 points and nine rebounds, while Hartsock added nine first half points. BYU made six threes in the half, the most the team had hit in a game since playing San Diego on January 16. The Cougars went on to made six more in the second half for 12 total, the most since Jan. 7 vs. San Francisco and more than the last three games combined.
“Our guys spent a lot of time on the three-point shooting," Rose said. "With the bye they had fresh legs and were able to control the pace of the game.”
Damarcus Harrison hit a trey to make the score 39-12 with 5:38 left in the half. Pepperdine outscored BYU 13-7 in the final five minutes of the half to narrow the deficit, but the Cougars still held a 46-25 lead heading into the locker room.
The Cougars opened the second half by outscoring Pepperdine 21-4 in the first seven minutes. Davies highlighted the run with two big dunks, while Abouo put the Cougars up 67-29 with his fifth three at the 12:48 mark.
Ten BYU players saw action in the final seven minutes of game time. Every player that entered the game for the Cougars scored at least three points and helped push the lead to a game-high 46 with 3:03 left in the game.
BYU will travel to California to take on San Francisco on Thursday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. PST and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU and KSL 1160 AM/102.7 FM.