BYU vs. USF postgame notes and quotes

Player Notes

Brock Zylstra finished with a season-high 18 points, going 2 for 6 from 3-point land for his 10th game this season to make more than two 3-pointers in a game. Zylstra has now scored in double figures in 8 games.
Brandon Davies finished with 13 points for his 25th game this season in double figures.
Tyler Haws finished with 16 points for his 24th game this season in double figures.
Matt Carlino finished with 10 points for his 14th game this season in double figures.
Bronson Kaufusi finished with a career-high 5 points and tied his career high with 1 steal.
Craig Cusick finished with 4 steals to tie his career high and 12 points, shooting 3 for 3 from behind the arc.
Brandon Davies reached double-digit points on a free throw at the 2:56 mark of the first half to put BYU up 38-28.
Brock Zylstra reached double-digit points on a 3-pointer at the 1:30 mark of the first half to put BYU up 44-31.
Tyler Haws reached double-digit points on a basket at the 19:40 mark of the second half to put BYU up 50-39.
Matt Carlino reached double-digit points on a 3-pointer with 3:20 to play in the second half to cut San Francisco’s lead to 80-77.
Craig Cusick reached double-digit points on a 3-pointer with 16 seconds to play in the game to cut San Francisco’s lead to 98-85.

Team Notes

Dave Rose started Brandon Davies, Tyler Haws, Josh Sharp, Brock Zylstra and Matt Carlino tonight for the 18th time this season, second straight. The Cougars are 12-6 with this starting lineup.
Tonight’s dunk came from Josh Sharp at the 16:56 mark.
BYU led San Francisco 48-39 at the half for the team’s 17th halftime lead this season.
BYU had 5 players score in double figures against San Francisco (Zylstra, Haws, Davies, Cusick and Carlino) for the first time since Jan. 12, 2013 when the Cougars played at Santa Clara.

Game Trends

Between 13:21 and 10:56, BYU went on a 9-0 run to take a 19-14 lead.
To start the second half, BYU went on a 6-0 run to take a 54-39 lead with 18:13 to play. Four of the six points in the run came from Tyler Haws.

“You definitely have to give them a lot of credit. We haven’t seen a team come in and shoot like that, especially in one half. It’s definitely hard to swallow.”

“They were shooting lights out and we had a couple let downs defensively. They were making shots and just the littlest let down can turn into a disaster.”

Brock Zylstra

“That was a great shooting percentage for them and a shooting exhibition by them, 9 for 10 in the second half. It took us out of our game.”

“They never give up. Coach Walters’ mentality is reflected in his players, he’s just a fighter. All those guys are fighters, they never give up.”

BYU head coach Dave Rose

“I thought that San Francisco played a great second half. We had a difficult time containing the ball in whatever defense we were in. They drove against us pretty well and kicked it to open shooters, and really got on a role there in the second half. We had a hard time matching it and kind of lost the momentum. They just didn’t let up.”

“In order to win a game like that we have to be a lot better defensively. I think our issues are on both ends of the floor, but on defense is where we’ll have to address the most. I thought they came in with a great game plan and deserved to win with how they played.”

San Francisco head coach Rex Walters

“This is a really tough place to play. BYU is a really good team and Dave (Rose) does a really good job. Having to play two games in three nights is hard, we didn’t play this week and we had more time to prepare. Our guys did a great job defensively in the second half, really trying to make them work for everything. Then we just tried to spread them out, and we were making shots. The bottom line is we spread them out, we found the open man and even late in the shot clock we were able to get quality looks. We were patient enough and tough enough to do that and weather the storm to get a good shot.”