SAN DIEGO — The Cougars stubbed their NCAA toe big time.
Johnny Dee scored 19 points, Ken Rancifer added 16 and San Diego snapped BYU’s three-game winning streak with a 74-68 victory Thursday night.
Chris Manresa chipped in 10 points, and he and Dennis Kramer grabbed 10 rebounds apiece, for the Toreros (13-12, 6-4 West Coast), who shot 50 percent from the floor and overcame 20 turnovers.
Conference scoring leader Tyler Haws led the Cougars (18-7, 8-3) with 27 points, and Brandon Davies had 20 points and 10 rebounds. Matt Carlino, the reigning WCC player of the week after a 28-point performance in Saturday’s win over Pepperdine, scored nine points and had five turnovers.
San Diego led the entire second half, but BYU pulled within 67-64 on Haws’ two free throws with 3:32 left. But Chris Anderson scored on a layup, then made two foul shots, to give the Toreros breathing room before Dee iced the win with three free throws.
Big Sky
• SOUTHERN UTAH 81, IDAHO STATE 79 (OT): At Pocatello,Damon Heuir, the leading scorer in the Big Sky Conference, scored six of his 17 points in overtime to lead Southern Utah over Idaho State on Thursday night.
Jackson Stevenett led the Thunderbirds (10-12, 8-5 Big Sky) with 23 points, but only had two points in overtime.
• MONTANA 73, NORTHERN COLORADO 63: At Missoula, Mont., Kareem Jamar scored 18 points to lead Montana to its 13th straight victory and 24th in a row in Big Sky Conference play.
Jamar also had eight rebounds and seven assists for Montana (17-4, 13-0 Big Sky). Mathias Ward had 14 points and Will Cherry 13.
• SACRAMENTO STATE 61, EASTERN WASHINGTON 55: At Sacramento, Calif., Dylan Garrity scored 15 points, John Dickson added 13 and Sacramento State avoided another close conference loss by beating Eastern Washington.
Garrity made three 3-pointers and added six assists for the Hornets (11-10, 6-7 Big Sky).
• USU AT SAN JOSE STATE TONIGHT: Utah State will continue its WAC road trip tonight at San Jose State.
The Aggies enter Friday night’s game with a 16-5 overall record and a 7-4 WAC mark, good for fourth in the WAC standings. Jarred Shaw leads the team in scoring at 13.5 points per game and in rebounding at 8.4 per game.
The Spartans are 9-13 overall and 3-8 in WAC action, having lost its last seven after a 9-6, 3-1 WAC start to the season.
Top 25
• ILLINOIS 74, NO. 1 INDIANA 72: At Champaign, Ill., Tyler Griffey made an uncontested layup at the buzzer off a baseline inbounds pass and Illinois beat No. 1 Indiana, the fifth straight week the nation’s top-ranked team has lost.
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