BYU basketball: Brock Zylstra's career night leads Cougars to win

Prescott Valley, Ariz. • BYU guard Brock Zylstra said Monday that the Cougars shoot the ball too well to have another performance from 3-point range like they had last week in a loss to No. 9 Wisconsin.

Then he went out and proved it. Zystra scored a career-high 23 points, including a 5-for-6 effort from beyond the arc, and the Cougars buried Northern Arizona 87-52 in a neutral-court college basketball game at Tim's Toyota Center.

Brandon Davies added 14 points and Noah Hartsock and Nate Austin added 11 apiece as the Cougars rebounded from Saturday's 73-56 loss to the Badgers with an easy win to improve to 5-2.

Northern Arizona, playing 73 miles away from its main campus in Flagstaff, fell to 2-5.

"Last game I didn't have a very good shooting game, so I knew I was due today," said Zylstra, who was 8 of 10 from the field.

The Cougars zoomed out to a 44-21 halftime lead and cruised in the second half in front of a pro-BYU crowd as coach Dave Rose emptied his bench.

After shooting 1-of-10 from 3-point range against Wisconsin, the Cougars were 10-of-25 from long range against the overmatched Lumberjacks, who committed 22 turnovers and were never in the game after taking an early 4-0 lead.

"Coach is known for not losing two games in a row," Zylstra said. "So we were able to get focused, and focused in our game plan, and did what we were supposed to do."

The Cougars had a 50-21 lead before NAU's first basket of the second half and kept a comfortable cushion the entire half. Davies grabbed eight rebounds as BYU, with a big size advantage, won the rebounding battle 34-29.

Playing the two-guard position after starting the season as BYU's point guard, Zylstra scored 15 of his game-high 23 in the first half.