BYU beats Saint Mary’s 71-66 for 3rd place in WCC

BYU beats Saint Mary’s 71-66 for 3rd place in WCC

PROVO, Utah (AP) — Yoeli Childs scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, TJ Haws added 17 points with seven assists and BYU beat Saint Mary’s 71-66 on Thursday night in a battle for third place in the West Coast Conference.

Zac Seljaas made a steal and fast-break dunk to extend BYU’s lead to 61-49 with just under six minutes left. Haws’ drive and no-look pass to Gavin Baxter for a dunk made it 67-60 with just over a minute left.

Baxter, a freshman from Provo, finished with 10 points for BYU (13-9, 5-2). The Cougars only turned it over twice compared to Saint Mary’s 15.

Malik Fitts scored 19 points for Saint Mary’s (13-8, 4-2) and Jordan Ford added 15.

Saint Mary’s, which leads the WCC in 3-point field goals at 39.5 percent, missed its first 13 from behind the arc and finished 5 of 20. Tanner Krebs made Saint Mary’s first 3-pointer of the night with 6:58 remaining to pull to 56-47.