Senior Kevin Field comes off the bench to grab a career-high 11 rebounds in the loss

PROVO, Utah --- The BYU Cougars scored 48 second-half points and defeated the Portland Pilots by a 79-50 margin Wednesday night at the Marriott Center. Portland shot just 26 percent from the field in the loss.

Sophomore guard Lee Cummard led three Cougars in double figures with 14 points, while senior forward Keena Young and junior guard Sam Burgess added 13 each. No Pilot reached double digits as junior forward Sherrard Watson and sophomore forward Jamie Jones had eight points each. Senior Kevin Field grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds off the bench.

An experienced BYU team emerged from a 31-24 halftime led and used three consecutive three-pointers from Burgess to gain a 45-28 lead five minutes into the second half and never looked back.

The Cougars (2-1), a 21-win team last season, is a senior-laden squad that returned four starters from last year, and the experience showed on Wednesday.

The pesky Pilots (2-4) hung around in the first half despite falling behind 11-2 in the early going. Portland was within three points at 20-17 with 6:25 left in the half on a free throw by freshman forward Ethan Niedermeyer, who made the first start of his career. The Pilots held the Cougars to 36 percent shooting in the period, but shot just 30 percent on the offensive end.

Portland shot just 22 percent after intermission and had only four assists on the night, all courtesy of sophomore point guard Brian McTear. The Cougars shot 55 percent after the break to account for a Portland opponent season high of 48 points in one half.

“I think our tough shooting night affected other parts of our game,” Portland head coach Eric Reveno said. “You have little margin for error when your shots aren’t falling, and I think we let that carry over to the defensive end at times.”

For the first time in five games, Portland was outrebounded by an opponent as BYU gained a 47-39 edge on the boards. The Cougars gained a 25-4 edge in second chance points off of 17 offensive rebounds. BYU also gained a 34-10 advantage in the paint and 21-6 margin off turnovers.

“Guys weren’t trying to miss shots or taking bad shots,” Reveno said, regarding his team’s offensive woes. “That’s just the way it goes sometimes. But we have to do a better job of maintaining our focus on the things we can control when that happens, like rebounding and defense.”

The Pilots will return to Portland and look to regroup in time for a crosstown rivalry game with the Portland State Vikings on Monday at the Stott Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. All Pilot games are broadcast on KKAD 1550 and streamed live on portlandpilots.com.