SALT LAKE CITY — Eric Mika was sure the BYU basketball team was better than giving up 114 points in a loss to crosstown rival Utah Valley.

The Lone Peak product just had to prove it Wednesday against fellow in-state rival Utah State.

Point taken.

Mika had 20 points, six rebounds and four blocks, and the Cougars outrebounded the Aggies 55-31 to help BYU snap a two-game losing streak with a 77-63 win over Utah State at Vivint Arena.

“Everyone who has watched us play knows that we are a very capable team,” Mika said. “We just have to have the right mindset. We came out with the right attitude and tried to prove something.”

Nick Emery supplied 11 points, six rebounds and three assists for the Cougars (5-2), and L.J. Rose had 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists.

“We couldn’t wait to play,” Rose said. “We embarrassed ourselves and the university on Saturday. We knew we had to come out. Guys had something to prove.”

Jalen Moore, who led Utah State (3-3) with 15 points, scored on the opening tip, and Utah State jumped out to a 5-0 advantage early. But Mika paced a 10-2 run with a dunk to give BYU a 10-7 lead with 16:11 left in the first half, and the Cougars never trailed again.

Braiden Shaw scored a team-high eight of his 10 points in the first half to lead BYU to a 37-31 halftime lead.

Shaw, who also had four of his five rebounds in seven minutes off the bench in the opening stanza, scored on three-straight tip-ins to give the Cougars a 35-29 lead in the final minute of the half before Moore ended the first half’s scoring.

“You go to the glass and try to get the board,” Shaw said. “You go every single time, and when they fall into your hands, you put them back in.”

Mika’s steal led to a fastbreak dunk with just over 12 minutes remaining to give BYU a 51-42 advantage, and the BYU sophomore finished off Rose’s alley-oop lob just a minute to help the Cougars build up their second-half lead.

“That was probably the play of my life,” Mika said. “I thought for sure I was going to turn it over, so I was pretty grateful to keep ahold of the ball and finish it off.”

Shane Rector pulled the Aggies within five, 54-49 with 8:53 left, but Mika kept the Cougars in front with a block, a jumper and a couple of rebounds. Rector finished with 11 points and four rebounds, Norbert Janicek had 12 points and two boards, and former Wasatch Academy star Koby McEwen supplied 10 points and three rebounds for the Aggies.

Here are three thoughts as the Cougars got defensive to hand the Aggies their third-straight loss.

BYU can’t shoot 3-pointers, but boy, can they rebound

BYU made just one of its first 11 3-pointers against the Aggies. But the Cougars’ inside game made it matter a little less.

The Cougars set a season-high with 19 offensive rebounds just five minutes into the second half and finished with a 23 offensive and 32 defensive boards against Utah State.

"Those are rebounding numbers that I have never seen before," Utah State coach Tim Duryea said. "We got out-toughed, physically manhandled."

On one play, the Cougars rebound five missed shots before Emery drained a long 3-pointer from the top of the key — just the second triple made for the high-scoring sophomore from Lone Peak High. BYU made 4-of-20 3-pointers but countered by limiting Utah State to just 10 second-chance points.

“I think we just came out with the mentality that we were going to play hard,” Shaw said. “When the ball went up, we all crashed and did our thing.”

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USU gets out-toughed by rival BYU

It wasn't a Nick Emery 3-pointer or an Eric Mika slam dunk that propelled the BYU Cougars to a 77-63 win over Utah State Wednesday night at Vivint Arena.

Young Childs' debut start

Yoeli Childs earned the first start of his career Wednesday, filling in for team captain Kyle Davis, who did not dress against his former team.

The freshman from Bingham High had six points and six rebounds in 14 minutes of the first half, while fellow post player Mika supplied eight points and two rebounds while struggling with a sprained ankle before his return.

Mika teased that Childs stole a few rebounds from him, but didn’t think to underestimate the freshman’s play, either.

“All jokes aside, he did an awesome job,” Mika said of Childs, who finished with nine points and 12 rebounds. “He missed a few shots, but got his hands on balls and was playing like a boost.”

L.J. Rose, box-score stuffer

He didn’t lead the team in scoring, but the former Houston point guard recorded his sixth-straight game in a BYU uniform with at least five assists.

Rose finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists in another stat-stuffing effort for the graduate transfer.

“I told Terry (Nashif) and Lee (Cummard) that I’ve been shooting terrible, and eventually it’s going to fall,” Rose said. “You just have to trust the process; eventually it will work out.”

Rose, who grew up in the Houston area, enjoyed his first and only taste of the BYU-Utah State rivalry in the third-ever neutral-site game between the two schools.

“It was pretty fun. To me, it felt like a high school game with the crowd going back and forth,” Rose said. “I don’t know much about Utah sports, but it was a good environment.”

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