BYU turned up its offensive efficiency in the second half and ran away from San Diego Thursday night.

Alex Barcello hit the 20-point mark for the first time in more than a month and freshman Fousseyni Traore recorded another double-double as the Cougars cranked out a 79-71 victory at the Marriott Center.

The game was tied at 31-all at halftime but BYU started to convert open shots, making 12 of 13 inside the arc during one stretch, to finally get some distance against the tenacious Toreros and move solo into second place in the West Coast Conference.

“There were a couple slip ups and miscommunications that we had in the first half,” Barcello said. “Our conversation at halftime was just, ‘Hey, its 31-31 coming into the second half.’ We were going to bring as much energy as we can. We were going to tighten up on the communication slip ups that we had. And we were just going to continue to battle throughout the game.”

Barcello finished with 22 points. Traore totaled 14 points and 11 rebounds, his third double-double of the season. Seneca Knight came off the bench and added 14 points on 4 of 5 from the field. Gideon George scored all 10 of his points in the second half as the Cougars ended up shooting 69% (18 of 26) from the field in the last 20 minutes.

“There was a lot of emotion that came out in the second half with with the refs, with players and with just with the teams,” Barcello said. “I just thought that we did a really good job battling that frustration, which is what these coaches preach to us every day.”

Jace Townsend scored 10 of his team-leading 14 points for San Diego (3-2 WCC, 10-8 overall) in the second half.

BYU was mostly uncomfortable on the offensive end in the first half, making just 33% (11 of 33) from the field and shooting air balls three times from the 3-point line. San Diego, meanwhile, isolated a multitude of options against the Cougars defenders and put seven players in the scoring column. The two teams went back and forth in the first half but the Toreros led the majority of the time.

Knight scored eight straight points off the bench, including a pair of corner 3-pointers, to push BYU in front 15-12 but San Diego quickly recovered the lead.

With eight minutes to play in the half, Barcello put San Diego’s Bryce Monroe on his back with a step-back move and stuck the jumper for a 23-19 Cougar advantage. Later, the Toreros scored six straight points, all in the paint, to move out in front 31-27 as the half wound down. Traore scored inside and after a San Diego miss, Knight raced the length of the court and was fouled with one second showing on the clock. He made both foul shots to tie the game at 31-all at halftime.

The Cougars started 7 of 9 from the field in the second half and took a 47-40 lead on seven straight points from George.

“We walked in at halftime with eight offensive rebounds,” BYU coach Mark Pope said. “We’re like, ‘You know what? We haven’t actually scored off these these rebounds, but that’s going to come.’ We know that our energy is in the right place. I think early on, it was just so much energy and so much adrenaline that maybe we didn’t function well. And then you know, Alex has a tendency to do this, right? At some point in the game. He’s just like, ‘Hey, let me just go make a bunch of shots.'”

Barcello, who had 15 of his 22 points in the second half, scored four straight and Knight fed Caleb Lohner for a dunk and a 60-48 advantage with 7:07 to play. San Diego didn’t go down easily but BYU made six straight free throws in final two minutes to lock up the win.

In the second half, BYU freshman Atiki Ally Atiki was ejected from the game after being assessed with a flagrant 2 foul while getting mixed up with a San Diego player under the basket.

BYU (4-1 WCC, 16-4 overall) will host Portland on Saturday in the Marriott Center.

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