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SALT LAKE CITY -- Who in the world is Michael Loyd Jr.? That is the question Utah Head Coach Jim Boylen and New Mexico Coach Steve Alford have to be asking themselves after their most recent games against BYU.
For the second consecutive game, Loyd picked up the slack for BYU leading scorer Jimmer Fredette, who once again didn't play like himself, getting into early foul trouble and scoring only eight points in 19 minutes during a 71-51 blowout against rival Utah in Salt Lake City Wednesday night.
Loyd produced an impressive line, dropping in 18 points to go with six rebounds, three assists and four steals; doing most of his damage in the first half.
BYU Head Coach Dave Rose said he was ecstatic about his third-string point guard's performance.
Related:
No. 14 BYU wins 71-51 to sweep rival Utah
Brandon Davies scored a career-high 21 points and Michael Loyd Jr. added 18 as No. 14 BYU beat Utah 71-51 on Wednesday night, giving the Cougars their third sweep of the state rivalry in the last four seasons."You talk about back-to-back halves," Rose told KSL Newsradio after the game. "I mean he had 19 in the second half on Saturday, and then 18 in the first half here in a time when we really needed it."
Another unlikely hero for the Cougars was backup center Brandon Davies, who came off the bench to score a career high 21 points, adding seven rebounds. The true freshman did most of his work against the Mountain West Conference's leading shot blocker, David Foster.
Davies told KSL Newsradio after the game that the Cougars were hungry for a win after such a tough loss to New Mexico last Saturday.
"Along with every one of my teammates, we were all upset about that loss," Davies said. "We all just made sure we came out and did what we needed to get away with this win."
The No. 14 Cougars (27-4, 12-3 MWC) led the entire game, jumped out to an early 28-16 lead over Utah, and entered the break with a 36-24 advantage. The lead ballooned to as much as 29 points midway through the second half and the Utes weren't able to put together any kind of run to get back in the game.
Rose said BYU's dominance was mostly due to a strong defensive effort, as the Cougars held the Utes (14-15, 7-8 MWC) to only 26.9 percent shooting for the game and forced 17 turnovers.
"The first 31 to 32 minutes of this game might have been our most consistent effort where we didn't let down," said Rose of his team's defensive performance.
With the win the Cougars locked themselves into second place in the Mountain West Conference standings behind New Mexico, who defeated TCU Wednesday night to secure an outright regular season MWC championship.
The Cougars finish the regular season Saturday against TCU, a team that has struggled to compete since joining the league. TCU will enter the game in seventh place in the MWC. Tip-off is at 4 p.m.
