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PROVO — BYU’s slow start Thursday night against visiting Oral Roberts was a first half-only occurrence.
The Cougars scored six points in just 24 seconds to start the second half, and Yoeli Childs had 24 points, 14 rebounds and three assists to lift BYU to an 85-65 win over the Golden Eagles in front of 10,179 at the Marriott Center.
Jahshire Hardnett added 16 points, four rebounds and four assists for the Cougars (3-1), which got 10 points and seven rebounds from freshman Connor Harding as part of a 26-point outing from the bench players.
"I'm so happy for those guys. This is probably the deepest team I’ve played on; it’s crazy," Childs said. "We would play pick-up in the summer, do two captains to pick teams, and I’d have no idea who I was picking.
"It's awesome to bring guys like Rylan (Bergersen) or Connor off the bench, and they can come in and play like a starter. It’s huge, and they are going to have really big careers here."
With the win, Childs, a junior who prepped at nearby Bingham High, became the 51st player in BYU history to top the 1,000 career-point mark.
"I saw a couple of guys go over 1,000 points as a player — Rob Williams, Clyde Drexler, Michael Young. You've got to be a special talent to score 1,000 points at your school," said BYU coach Dave Rose of Childs, who also had his fourth-straight game with a double-double.
"That’s a good club to be in," Rose added.
Kaelen Malone had 12 points and seven assists to lead Oral Roberts (1-3). Kevin Obanor added 12 points for the Golden Eagles, all in the first half.
Oral Roberts shot 40 percent from the field early and clung to a 20-19 lead 13 minutes into the first half as BYU’s shooting woes from deep continued, making just two of the Cougars’ first eight 3-point attempts.
But the Cougars hit three of their final seven 3-point attempts to end the half, including Harding's swish with 6:21 to go until halftime that helped BYU surge to a 12-1 run to take a 38-26 lead on Seljaas’ 3-point bomb.
Harding finished the first half with a team-high 10 points, and Childs had eight points and six rebounds for the Cougars, who outscored ORU 17-5 on the fast break and 19-15 off the bench.
BYU also scored quickly out of the break. TJ Haws capped a 6-0 run in 24 seconds to force Oral Roberts to use a timeout just 52 seconds into the second half.
"The guys just broke it open," Childs said of the spurt. "I think it’s really important for us to share the ball and make the extra pass, and that’s what we started doing in the last four minutes, and then in the beginning of the second half.
"When we make plays together, it’s so much fun to play out there."
Childs hit back-to-back buckets to push BYU’s lead to 62-41 with 12:37 left to play, then passed the 1,000 career-point mark with an effortless 3-pointer right before the under-12 timeout.
"He's the focal point of all the defenses, and he does a great job of facilitating when double teams come, finding open guys, and then scoring when he needs to," said BYU sophomore Rylan Bergersen, who had seven of the Cougars' 26 points off the bench. "I think he does a great job of playing through contact.
"He didn't get a couple of calls he wanted, but played through and finished it. It’s great to see him play through and get buckets, no matter what."
BYU shot just 25 percent from 3-point range, including a mere 1-of-9 from deep in the second half. But the Cougars’ bench poured in 26 points, and BYU out-rebounded the Golden Eagles 52-37 to cruise to the 20-point win.
"This is a team that rebounds the ball well, and we did a good job of keeping them off the boards," Rose said of Oral Roberts. "That's the way that we are going to have to be and play."
Next up
BYU hosts Alabama A&M at 4 p.m. MT Saturday as part of the Men Against Breast Cancer Cougar Cup. The Cougars finish the on-campus tournament next week with games against Rice and Houston.
