Haws's 37 points advance BYU past Washington

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PROVO, Utah – Tyler Haws scored 37 points and broke Roland “The Cat” Minson’s school scoring record of 28 points in an National Invitational Tournament game to lead No. 3 seed BYU to a 90-79 win over No. 6 Washington in the first round of the NIT on Tuesday night at the Marriott Center.

Minson’s effort came during BYU's run to the 1951 NIT title, its first of two NIT championships.

With 706 points on the season, Haws joins Jimmer Fredette, Danny Ainge, Michael Smith and Devin Durrant as the only Cougars to score at least 700 points in a single season. He is the only one to accomplish the feat during his sophomore season.

Brandon Davies and Matt Carlino just missed out on double-doubles with Davies scoring 22 points and grabbing nine rebounds to go along with two blocks while Carlino added 20 points, nine assists, seven boards and two steals.

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As a team, BYU shot 47.0 percent for the game and a blistering 58.3 percent in the second half while Washington shot 41.8 percent for the contest. The Cougars worked hard on the glass, outrebounding the Huskies 43-34. BYU's rebounding efforts helped spur a 12-2 advantage in fast break points.

BYU took a 4-0 lead but the Huskies responded to take a 9-6 edge in the first four minutes of play. Haws grabbed an offensive board and dished it to freshman Cory Calvert for the BYU’s first trey of the game to even the score at 9-9.

Calvert’s three was part of a 12-2 run that gave the Cougars a 18-11 lead at the 11:32 mark in the first half. Haws hit a 3-pointer of his own to cap the run.

Washington continued to battle as the Cougars cooled off, trimming BYU’s lead to 25-24 with 4:35 left until the break and retaking the lead with another trey to make it 27-25 on the next trip down the floor.

Both teams kept it close down the stretch of the first half and the Cougars trailed the Huskies 35-33 heading into the locker room. Shots behind the arc were a big factor with Washington draining 6 of 10 while BYU made just 2 of 12. The Cougars had the edge on the boards, outrebounding the Huskies 24-17 but also gave up nine turnovers.

Trailing 37-35 in the opening minutes of the second half, Davies knocked down a 3-pointer for the Cougars to retake the lead and sparked a back-and-forth start to the second half.

No team had a lead larger than three points over the first seven minutes until Haws’ made a short jumper inside the key and Brock Zylstra slammed home a pass off a Carlino steal to give BYU a 51-45 lead with 12:52 to go.

Carlino drilled a 3-pointer on the next possession and the Cougars continued to roll with a 13-2 run to push their lead to 58-47 with 11:07 to play.

Washington wasn’t going away easy as a 9-2 run put the Huskies right back in it, cutting BYU’s advantage to 60-56 over the next two minutes.

With the shot clock winding down and the Cougars’ lead down to three, Carlino had the answer with a long 3-pointer, followed by another dish to Davies on the next possession to push BYU’s lead to 71-63 with 6:06 remaining in the game.

Though Washington threatened with under two minutes to play and BYU up 82-75, Davies threw down a one-handed dunk to electrify the crowd and put the Huskies away for good en route to a 90-79 win.

Up next, BYU will host a second round game in the Marriott Center against the winner of No. 2 seed Tennessee and No. 7 seed Mercer. The date, time and broadcast information will be announced in the coming days.