SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Noah Hartsock and Brandon Davies combined for 41 points to lead the BYU men’s basketball team to its fifth-straight win, a 82-67 victory at Santa Clara.
"I am really happy with our guys," head coach Dave Rose said. "I think winning on the road is what kind of separates you from a lot of teams. This team has figured out how to do it."
Hartsock scored a game-high 21 points and pulled down five rebounds. Davies played just 26 minutes but scored 20 points on 6 of 7 shooting and did damage from the free throw line, going 8 of 11. Senior Charles Abouo scored 14 points, including 12 in the second half and had a game-high eight rebounds.
"I thought our game plan was good, our effort was good, our execution was good," Rose said. "It was just a hard fought game. We were able to really extend the lead at that time in the game where we really like to push the ball."
Brock Zylstra also finished in double figures with 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting. Freshman Matt Carlino dished out a game-best seven assists.
Hartsock and Davies paced the Cougars (23-6, 11-3) early with 13 and 11 first-half points, respectively. Davies hit all four of his shot attempts in the opening 20 minutes.
After falling behind 13-10 at the 12:38 mark, BYU rallied with a 14-4 run that included a trey from Zylstra and three-point plays by both Hartsock and Davies.
An Anson Winder triple gave BYU its biggest lead of the first half at 32-23. Santa Clara responded with an 8-2 run to close the period but the Cougars held on to a 34-31 lead at the break.
"Give Santa Clara a lot of credit," Rose said. "We got this thing to 9, 10, 11 points three or four times. They would get a timeout a dead ball and they would hit a really tough shot."
The Cougars extended their lead to double digits for the first time with a Davies dunk off an inbounds pass with 13:15 remaining. Santa Clara (8-19, 0-14) narrowed it back to eight points at the 10:22 mark but were unable to get any closer.
Carlino scored his first points of the game with 3:07 remaining as a part of a 9-0 Cougar run that put BYU up by a game high 19 at 80-61.
BYU will continue the season with its third-consecutive away game at Gonzaga on Thursday. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. PST and the game can be seen on ESPN2 or heard at KSL 102.7 FM and 1160 AM.