PROVO — Nick Emery set up San Francisco men’s basketball team, and Eric Mika swooped in late to knock the Dons down.

Mika had a career-high 31 points and 12 rebounds while Emery added 19 points to help the Cougars pull away from San Francisco for an 85-75 win Thursday night at the Marriott Center.

“At the end of the day, my guys were just finding me: on posts, on cuts, in transition,” said Mika, who capped the scoring with a dunk in the final seconds on a pass from TJ Haws. “I attribute it to our unselfish play on offense.”

Elijah Bryant supplied 12 points, five rebounds and three assists off the bench for BYU, which improved to 13-5 and 4-1 in West Coast Conference play. Haws finished with seven points, three rebounds and three assists, and Yoeli Childs supplied eight points and three blocked shots.

Remu Raitanen led USF (11-7, 1-4 WCC) with 16 points and six rebounds, and Jimbo Lull added 12 points and four rebounds, with Chase Foster supplying 10 points and six boards.

Emery scored 18 points, including three 3-pointers, to lift the Cougars to a 38-32 halftime advantage. The sophomore broke out from the floor, going 6 of 8 from the field and 3 of 4 from deep in the opening 20 minutes.

But the Dons came back — mostly on the back of their 3-point shooting. Four of San Francisco’s first eight shots sank from downtown, including one with 9:01 left in the half to pull the Dons within 25-20.

“This is a team we prepared for, but it’s a really good basketball team,” BYU coach Dave Rose said. “The schedule has been really tough on them; they lost at Santa Clara, and then came home to Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s.

“I think early, we were prepared. But late, they were putting the ball in.”

Mika opened the second with 11 points, including a dunk with 13:01 remaining to put BYU up 55-45 with 13:01 remaining, and the Cougars eventually pulled away for a convincing-if-not-comfortable win.

Here are three quick thoughts from the game.

Emery finds his shooting stroke

The former Lone Peak standout entered the game shooting 41 percent from 3-point range, but he improved on that number Thursday.

Emery made 4-of-5 3-pointers to lead all shooters, his most 3-pointers since he nailed five against Loyola-Marymount two weeks ago — then surged against the Dons, which he has done for three straight games.

In three outings against San Francisco (two of them in Provo), Emery is averaging 27 points per game.

“Tonight was a good night, just like last year,” said Emery, who had 37 points in a 114-89 win on the Hilltop as a freshman. “But San Francisco’s defense let off me in the first half, and I got open shots and was able to knock them down.”

Mika is just getting warmed up

Count sophomore Eric Mika among those who misses something about the WCC’s former travel-partner schedule rotation.

“I kind of miss my three-day California mini-vacations,” the returned missionary joked.

The Cougars opened conference play with four straight weeks of one-home, one-away games in the same weekend, causing an adjustment to every team in the league.

Still, the super sophomore is hitting his stride in a big way. Mika was held to just eight points and four rebounds in the first half, then opened the final 20 minutes with 10 points in less than 10 minutes en route to a new career high.

“Nick and our guards did an awesome job of being aggressive in the first half,” he said. “I think they switched things up a little more, and so I was open a lot more and my guy found me.”

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By the end of Thursday night’s men’s basketball game in the Marriott Center, BYU will have seen three of the West Coast Conference’s four new coaches in the league — all at home. San Francisco’s Kyle Smith will be the third — but his team isn’t playing like a squad in transition.

Boyce-less Dons

All week, BYU prepared to face Ronnie Boyce, the Dons’ leading scorer who regularly comes off the bench to average 17 points per game.

But when it came time to bring in No. 3 Thursday night, new coach Kyle Smith put Boyce in — then subbed him out just two minutes later.

“I’m very surprised. I don’t know if he’s hurt, but he only came in for a couple of minutes and we never saw him again,” Rose said of Boyce. “They had a definite plan. We switched some things, and when they got a matchup they liked, they just drove that thing.”

Boyce finished without a shot attempt, and his only recorded stat was a turnover in the first half.

“He’s a heck of a player,” said Emery, who was charged with defending Boyce. “I don’t know what is going on, but it doesn’t make him not a good player. He’ll find his spot.”

BYU travels to San Diego at 7 p.m. MT Saturday.

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