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PROVO — Just two days of struggling to pull out a road win at San Diego, the BYU men's basketball team returned to the Marriott Center to complete a rare home-and-home series with West Coast Conference travel partner San Diego.
Nick Emery made the Cougars a lot more comfortable.
Emery poured in 17 points to lead BYU to an 91-33 rout of the Toreros, leaving the game with more than 10 minutes remaining in the game.
The freshman from Alpine connected on 7-of-12 shots from the field, including three 3-pointers, and added nine rebounds and five assists in 28 minutes of play.
"I think that might be as good as we've ever played with this group," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "We were really focused on the defensive end, and got them to take some tough shots early. We were good rebounding the ball. Then it became where even when they beat us and got the shot they wanted, they had a hard time making them.
"We were really focused on giving them one shot, active rebounding. They beat us on the boards the other night, and we beat them on the boards tonight. That was a big part of the success."
Zac Seljaas added 13 points and four assists for the Cougars (21-8, 12-4 WCC), and Kyle Collinsworth had 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
Kyle Davis and Chase Fischer scored eight points apiece for BYU, which earned its biggest win of the season. BYU also outrebounded San Diego, 49-33, and assisted on 25-of-36 made shots.
Meanwhile, BYU shot 57.1 percent from the field Saturday night, including 71.4 percent (20-of-28) in the second half.
"We came out with confidence, and it was a huge spread," Emery said. "But those guys are fighters, and they'll battle back."
San Diego spotted BYU a 13-point lead before registering its first bucket, a layup with 13:22 to go in the half by Duda Sanadze. Collinsworth gave the Cougars a 27-6 lead on a monster dunk with 819 left in the half, just moments before picking up his second foul.
Corbin Kaufusi stretched the lead to 31-6 just under two minutes later before BYU went into the locker room up, 39-11 at the break.
Emery had nine points and three assists to lead BYU in the first half, and Fischer and Seljaas added eight points apiece for a Cougars squad that assisted on 12 of its 16 made buckets in the first half.
More of the same in the second half: Collinsworth finished off a fast break with a dunk, and Seljaas pumped in another triple on the next possession as BYU went up 51-12 with 16:13 left in the game.
"We just worked on getting ourselves going for this game, and making it so we could pretty much redeem ourselves from Thursday," Seljaas said.
Rose pulled every starter but Collinsworth with about 10 minutes remaining in the blowout, and the Provo High grad left with Seljaas a couple of minutes later.
BYU played all 12 players on its active roster, including sophomore walk-on Davin Guinn, who had a career-high nine points.
Brett Bailey led San Diego (8-19, 3-13 WCC) with nine points.
"I think we moved the ball better, and that's what got us going offensively," Emery said. "With this team, if our offensive game is on, then our defensive game is on.
"I think tonight we just proved that we learn well from our mistakes, and we move on to the next game really well."
