BYU basketball vs. Princeton final: Cougars tame the Tigers in 82-73 victory

The BYU basketball team picked up an 82-73 victory versus an experienced Princeton squad behind an Eric Mika double-double.

In his first regular season game since returning from his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mika scored 26 points and pulled down 18 rebounds (career highs in both categories).

Mika got plenty of help from the other two members (TJ Haws & Nick Emery) of the highly anticipated trio of former Lone Peak players who played their first regular season game together since winning a high school national championship together back in 2012-13. Haws added 20 points while Emery had 15. After just one game, the Lone Peak trio looks like they are as advertised.

Princeton grabbed an early five-point lead at 10-5 in the first half. The Cougars regained the lead at 9:22 mark in the first at 21-20 and never looked back. The Tigers made a few runs to get themselves within one score, but we're never able to take a lead again.

BYU head coach, Dave Rose stuck to a seven-man rotation for most of the game, relying on his starters (Mika, Kyle Davis, Emery, Haws, & LJ Rose) and Yoeli Childs and Elijah Bryant off the bench to bring home the victory.

The Cougars will be back in action this Thursday at 7:00 pm MST for a matchup with Coppin State at the Marriott Center.