Down 10 points on the road at San Francisco in the second half, the BYU men’s basketball team had to find some way to get back in the game.

They did it with defense. They did by (eventually) getting to the foul line. And finally, they did it by just being tough.

Caleb Lohner made two huge plays in the final minute and the Cougars survived a long 3-point attempt by Jamaree Bouyee at the buzzer to preserve a 71-69 victory on Saturday at War Memorial Gym.

The win snapped the Dons 11-game winning streak at home and gave BYU two wins in a brutal 3-game stretch against Saint Mary’s, No. 2 Gonzaga and USF.

“San Francisco is a great team and they’ve proven it,” Cougar coach Mark Pope said on the CBS Sports Network. “They don’t lose here right now. They’re a veteran group and Todd (Golden) does a great job. It’s hard for anybody come in here and win. It was just guts, man. As a coach we get to witness how much investment and blood, sweat and tears and emotion these guys put into it. We just fought and fought and fought and it was beautiful.”

BYU trailed for a large portion of the game but pulled even at 54-all on a driving layup from Lohner with 7:11 to play. The Cougars — which didn’t shoot a single free throw until the 12:41 mark of the second half — tripped to the foul line as the game got tight and converted 14 of 18 in the second half. Te’Jon Lucas made two with 1:41 remaining to give BYU its first lead (66-65) since the first half.

Alex Barcello found Lohner inside for a basket at the 56-second mark for a 68-65 lead. After USF closed to within one point again, Lohner hustled for an offensive rebound after a Barcello miss and that play forced the Dons to foul to stop the clock with 12.4 seconds remaining. Lucas made a pair of foul shots for a 70-67 advantage.

BYU led 71-69 lead in the final seconds and Bouyea tried to play hero with a step-back 3-pointer that hit front rim before bouncing away at the buzzer.

Barcello led BYU (3-1 WCC, 15-4 overall) with 18 points and seven rebounds. Lucas added 12 points, 10 in the second half, to go along with five assists. Lohner, who played just four minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, scored all eight of his points in the second half. Freshman Fousseyni Traore finished with nine points, nine rebounds and two blocks.

“We need every win and I think we learned a lot having these two games (Gonzaga and USF) back to back just because of the way Gonzaga plays in transition and they’re really talented,” Barcello said. “This team (USF) also pushes the ball in transition and I thought that it prepared us well to handle it. I thought we did a good job on their shooters, being there with the stick hand. We started a little bit slow rebounding the ball but that stretch when they got that ten point lead and we were chipping away we got stop, rebound, stop, rebound.”

Bouyea scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half for San Francisco (2-1, 15-3). Khalil Shabazz had 14 and Patrick Tape 12 for the Dons, which shot a miserable 3 for 23 (13%) from the 3-point line.

Both teams struggled to find the range offensively in the first half, shooting a combined 18-61 (29%) from the field. Predictably, neither team was able to pull away. The Dons led by as many as five, the Cougars by as many as three.

USF went up 15-10 with 7:55 remaining in the first half but BYU got a spark from Traore. Barcello missed a floater but Traore was there for the spectacular put back dunk. The next time down the floor, Trevin Knell dished to Traore for a one-handed jam for a 22-19 advantage with 3:55 remaining.

Barcello drained a 3-pointer with four seconds to play and the Cougars went into the break trailing 28-27.

While San Francisco couldn’t find their long-distance shooting range, the Dons did make many trips to the foul line, converting 17 of 19 there before BYU attempted its first foul shot. A Bouyea 3-pointer pushed the home team’s lead to ten, 45-35, at the 13:30 mark of the second half before the Cougars mounted a comeback.

“We were getting crushed on the glass,” Pope said. “We’re not winning games like that. It was a miracle we were in the game. That’s where the game changed was on the glass. We got contributions from so many different guys and we were so sound in the half court defensively, and that was super impressive. It was great, physical, grind-it-out, guard, attack space basketball.”

BYU will host San Diego and Portland next week in the Marriott Center.

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