PROVO, Utah – The BYU Cougars returned home after almost a month on the road to beat the Portland Pilots 79-56 at the Marriott Center. The Cougars outscored Portland 43-26 in the second half.

Yoeli Childs led the way with 28 points, including 20 second half points to go with 12 rebounds, McKay Cannon added 11 points as the only two Cougars to score in double figures.

Franklin Porter scored 14 points to lead the Pilots while JoJo Walker chipped in 10 points.

BYU Takes Big Lead Before Portland Comeback

Childs scored the first five points of the game, followed by a three-pointer by Connor Harding and a layup by McKay Cannon, BYU was up 10-4 early having just played 4 minutes.

Cannon and Nick Emery nailed a triple each followed by a layup by Luke Worthington helped bump the run to 18-0 before Portland stopped the run with a pair of free-throws. The Pilots were scoreless for over 7 minutes and made just one of their 12 field goal attempts.

Most of Portland’s points came off of free-throws before Shaver scored a layup that ended a 10 minute drought of no field goals scored. BYU’s lead was 28-12 with seven minutes left in the first half.

The Pilots finally started scoring as they went on an 18-5 run to cut the lead to three with 1 minute left until halftime. Rylan Bergersen hit a three-pointer with one second left to give BYU a 36-30 lead at the break.

BYU shot 44 percent on 12-of-27 shooting from the field while Portland hit just 8 of their 24 attempts for 33 percent in the first half.

Childs Puts Up Big Second Half

The Cougars started the second half, hitting their first three shots while Portland made four of their first five but BYU held a 51-39 with 15 minutes left.

BYU outscored the Pilots 8-4 over the next three minutes to lead 59-43 with 12:37 left.

Childs was a big part of the dominating second half where the Cougars outscored Portland 43-26 to win the game.

Up Next

BYU improved to 10-8 overall and 2-1 in West Coast Conference play. They will be back at the Marriott Center on Saturday to face Santa Clara, who is 9-7 overall and 1-1 in WCC action. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on BYUtv and KSL Newsradio.