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Los Angeles • BYU's coaching staff had seen this movie before — two days ago, to be exact.
The Cougars built a double-digit halftime lead against Loyola Marymount on Saturday afternoon in front of 3,232 at Gertsen Pavilion, then watched the Lions score eight points on the first three possessions to get their crowd back in the game and give themselves hope.
Coach Dave Rose called a quick timeout with 16:51 remaining, reminded his players that if they didn't want another second-half fiasco like what occurred up the Pacific Coast Highway at Pepperdine on Thursday night, they'd better start playing some defense and getting some rebounds.
This time, they responded, shutting LMU down on four of the next six possessions, and cruised to an 87-68 win to snap their three-game road losing streak. Kyle Collinsworth recorded his fifth triple-double, tying a career-high with 23 points to go along with 12 rebounds and 10 assists. He became the NCAA record-holder for most triple-doubles in a season, and is now just one away from tying Drexel's Michael Anderson and LSU's Shaquille O'Neal for the career mark.
But Saturday was about BYU's team and how it recovered to put together two strong halves, albeit against a team that dropped to 4-9 in league play, 8-17 overall.
"I think it is interesting because there are not many times when you get a chance to redo something, especially in this game, and as quickly as that [turnaround] was," Rose said. "… I thought after that timeout we were a lot more dialed in and we had active hands and got in good rebounding position, for the most part."
While nothing will take away that bitter taste from the 80-74 loss to the Waves in the battle for third place on Thursday, the Cougars (18-8, 8-5 WCC) return to the Marriott Center for a tilt with second-place Saint Mary's this week with some positive energy and confidence — and perhaps a new contributor.
With second-leading scorer Anson Winder fighting a groin strain, Rose started senior Josh Sharp, who led a 42-25 rebounding advantage with seven caroms and also had three assists and two steals in 28 minutes.
"I definitely have just been waiting for my time," said Sharp, who started 22 games as a sophomore but hadn't played in four of BYU's past five games. "But it is all about getting better as a team, and getting a win; I am just glad I was able to help out with that."
The Cougars grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, which they turned into 19 second-chance points. Skyler Halford played 25 minutes because Winder could only go for six, and he had 18 points, 3 of 6 from 3-point range.
"We rebounded well, and in the second half, we got stops," Collinsworth said. "They got off and scored four or five times in a row, and we decided we needed to get stops, and we did. And we just made big plays. We got a lot of offensive rebounds down the stretch — a lot of big plays that we haven't been making."
That included two big stops after LMU had trimmed the lead to eight, 61-53, with eight minutes remaining, when the Cougars had gone empty on four consecutive possessions. An 18-6 BYU run, capped by a sweet tip-in by Isaac Neilson ensured the Cougars could cruise the final three minutes.
"You know, it means a lot to bounce back with a win," Collinsworth said. "The thing about basketball, it is all about timing — playing well when you need to play well. We are going to keep battling every day. We are going to get better, and we are going to make a big run and finish out conference play and get ready for the [conference] tournament."
Tyler Haws added six rebounds and 22 points to get within 69 points of Jimmer Fredette's BYU career scoring record, and Corbin Kaufusi also snagged six rebounds and blocked three shots.
"They were a pretty down group of guys who were trying to make things better after the night the other night, and they found a way to do it," Rose said.
Twitter: @drewjay