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San Diego • After averaging more than 100 points a game in a pair of wins last week, the BYU Cougars ran into the slow-down San Diego Toreros on Thursday night.
And they almost ran out of momentum.
In a tight game against the last-place team in the West Coast Conference, the Cougars scratched out a 69-67 victory at Jenny Craig Pavilion.
The Toreros cut a 66-58 BYU lead to 66-64 with under a minute left, but Nick Emery made three free throws in the final 18 seconds.
San Diego's Vasa Pusica hit a 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds left to cut the BYU lead to one before Emery's clinching free throw with 3.6 seconds left iced the win.
The Cougars (20-8, 11-4) stretched their lead for third place in the WCC over Pepperdine (9-7, 16-11) because the Waves lost 82-72 at home to San Francisco.
After trailing by as many as 13 points in the first half and 32-27 at halftime, the Cougars scored the first seven points of the second half to take their first lead since the opening minute, 34-32.
San Diego's Cameron Neubauer, who had made 11 3-pointers this season, made his third of the game with 15 minutes remaining to give the Toreros a 38-36 lead.
Emery, who scored 68 points in two games last week, did not score until the second half. His 3-point play with 11:20 left gave BYU a 45-42 lead. He finished with 11, while Kyle Collinsworth had 25 points, 12 rebounds and six assists for BYU.
Chase Fischer's 3-pointer with around eight minutes left gave BYU its largest lead to that point, 57-53, but San Diego (8-18, 3-12) would not go away. Fischer finished with 14, all in the second half.
San Diego controlled the tempo from the opening tip, and jumped out to a 15-4 lead on 6 of 10 shooting from 3-point range.
The Cougars whittled away at that lead, but another flurry of 3-pointers and free throws gave the Toreros a 30-17 lead with 7:28 remaining in the first half.
San Diego did not make a field goal the rest of the half, however, and the Cougars ended the half on an 8-0 run to trim the deficit to 32-27 at the break. San Diego did not score in the final 5:30 of the half and had three shot-clock violations in the half.
Jordan Chatman's 3-pointer just before halftime got the Cougars to within five.
Collinsworth scored 12 points and had nine rebounds in the first half, but BYU's other guards — Chase Fischer and Emery — combined to go 0 for 9 in the first 20 minutes.
The Cougars shot 27 percent in the first half, the Toreros 40 percent.
BYU was hurt when starting center Corbin Kaufusi picked up two fouls in the first minute and 38 seconds of the game and spent the remainder of the half on the bench. He picked up two more fouls in the first eight minutes of the second half.
Olin Carter III scored 10 points in the first half for San Diego, and Vasa Pusica had nine.
BYU's 27 first-half points tied a season-low; The Cougars trailed Saint Mary's 36-27 at halftime in Moraga on Dec. 31.
Twitter: @drewjay