PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Brandon Davies had 27 points and 10 rebounds to lead BYU in an 84-54 defeat of Northern Arizona on Thursday night.
Davies was 13 of 16 from the field for the Cougars (9-4). Tyler Haws added 15 points, reserve guard Raul Delgado had 11 and Matt Carlino had six assists.
BYU led 48-23 at halftime and had its largest lead -- 38 points-- at 10:16 in the second half. The Cougars had 18 points off turnovers. The Lumberjacks had 24 turnovers. The Cougars made 32 of 69 (46.4 percent) from the field for the game, while the Lumberjacks made 22 of 60 (36.7 percent).
Michael Dunn came off the bench to lead Northern Arizona (4-8) with a career-high 17 points. Stallon Saldivar had a career-high nine rebounds and four assists, which moved him to fourth place on NAU's all-time assist list.
The Lumberjacks have now lost three consecutive games.
“As a team, we talked at halftime how we have to get better," NAU coach Jack Murphy said. "A week from tonight we get back into conference play. We wanted to go into conference play with some positive momentum.”
Dunn scored 14 of NAU’s 16 points over one stretch in the second half and hit four straight baskets, including a rare four-point play, as NAU went on a 10-0 run to cut the deficit to 28 points. The Lumberjacks were outscored by only five points in the second half.
“We played in a difficult and tough environment,” Murphy said. “We look at the game in four-minute segments. Over 12 minutes in the first half, we lost 21-19, but over the other eight minutes, we lost 27-4. We talked about competing and winning all four-minute segments in the second half, and we did that pretty well.”
NAU freshman DeWayne Russell was held under double digits for the first time with just nine points in the contest. Gabe Rogers had eight points, finishing just 2 for 13 from the field and 0 for 6 from beyond the arc.
NAU returns home to host a pair of Big Sky games next week, starting with Sacramento State on Jan. 3 for “Back to School Night”. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. at the Walkup Skydome.
