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PROVO, Utah – BYU shot better than 53 percent from the floor and used a late surge to pull away from visiting Portland State for a 82-67 victory on Saturday afternoon at the Marriott Center.
The Vikings hung with BYU throughout the game and trailed by just six with a little over six minutes remaining, but the Cougars closed out the game on a 22-13 run to improve to 8-3 on the season.
Portland State fell to 5-5 with the loss.
While BYU never trailed in the game, they still had to fight off the Vikings throughout much of the opening period. The Cougars used a small run right before the break to put some separation between themselves and the Vikings.
The Cougars led 23-18, before
Kelly Marchant nailed a three-pointer and made 1 of 2 at the free-throw line to pull Portland State within a point at the 8:55 mark. Portland State trailed 28-26 with 6:44 until halftime after a jumper by
Lexi Bishop, but BYU would score 10 of the next 12 points. Both teams went scoreless over the final 3:34 and the Cougars went into halftime with a 38-28 lead.
Coming out of the break the Cougars pushed their lead to 44-34, before Portland State rallied.
Courtney VanBrocklin hit a three to bring the Vikings within four, 49-45, and later Bishop hit another shot from behind the arc that put the score at 52-48, in favor of BYU.
The Vikings trailed 60-54 with 6:12 left, but it was all BYU from there. The Cougars held Portland State scoreless for almost three minutes while scoring eight straight points to essentially put the game away.
VanBrocklin led all scorers with a career-high 22 points and also grabbed eight rebounds.
Eryn Jones added 12 points, while Bishop and Marchant both finished with nine apiece for Portland State.
Mindy Bonham paced BYU with 19 points and 10 boards, and Dani Peterson came off the bench to score 12.
Portland State returns home to host Georgia Tech on Tuesday. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m., at the Stott Center.
NOTES: Bishop tallied three of the Vikings' 10 steals ...
Stephanie Egwuatu played a career-high 22 minutes for PSU and also had a career-best four rebounds ... Portland State dropped to 1-5 on the road this season and has lost four in a row away from the Stott ... BYU finished the game shooting 53.4 percent ... the Cougars lead the all-time series 4-1.