OKLAHOMA CITY -- BYU assistant head coach Dave Rice chose the word carefully on how he'd best describe reserve guard Michael Loyd whose antics Thursday helped propel the Cougars into the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

"Fearless. He is just fearless," said Rice.

That was never more apparent than late in the first half of BYU's 99-92 double-overtime win over Florida in the Ford Center.

The Cougars started out shaky, just like 12 previous outings in the Big Dance. Florida had a 28-21 lead when BYU head coach Dave Rose inserted Loyd into the game to give starting point guard Jimmer Fredette a rest.

What transpired in the next two minutes was amazing, a copy of Loyd's performances against New Mexico, Utah and TCU during Mountain West play in the final weeks of the regular season.

Loyd had two driving scores and pulled up for two 3-pointers and suddenly the Cougars used that 10-point burst to take a lead into halftime. Loyd built a foundation for BYU's first tournament win since 1993 in those 120 seconds.

Loyd finished with a career high 26 points on 7 of 10 shooting. He made 9 of 10 free throws. But more importantly, he provided Florida defenders with another headache other than Fredette and in the end, he may have wore down Gator defenders to the point in the second overtime they couldn't make open shots to win the game.