BYU vs. Mercer postgame notes and quotes

Player Notes

Brandon Davies finished with 26 points for his 33rd game in double figures this season and 15th with 20-plus. Davies now has 1,655 career points, moving him into 10th all-time at BYU.
Brandon Davies is now in the top 10 in BYU history in scoring (10th), rebounding (7th), steals (9th) and blocks (5th). The only other Cougar in program history in the top 10 in each category is Russell Larson.
Brandon Davies also contributed 10 rebounds for his 10th double-double this season and 23rd in his career. He now has 822 rebounds in his career, moving him past Russell Larson into 7th all-time at BYU.
Matt Carlino finished with 18 points for his 19th game in double figures this season. Matt tied his career high with five 3-pointers. The five 3-pointers tie a BYU program record for 3-pointers made in an NIT game.
Matt Carlino also contributed 9 assists, moving him into a tie for 17th all-time at BYU.
Tyler Haws finished with 24 points for his 32nd game in double figures this season and 23rd with 20-plus. Tyler now has 1,127 career points, moving him past Terrell Lyday, Gary Earnest, John Fairchild and Mel Hutchins into 34th all-time at BYU.
Brock Zylstra finished with 14 points for his 11th game in double figures this season. Brock hit a season-high four 3-pointers. With the four 3-pointers tonight, Brock moved into 17th all-time at BYU for 3-pointers made.
Brandon Davies reached double-digit points with a jumper at the 7:01 mark in the first half to put BYU up 30-16.
Matt Carlino reached double-digit points with his fourth 3-pointer of the half at the 1:30 mark to put BYU up 44-30.
Tyler Haws reached double-digit points with a jumper at the 17:09 mark in the second half to put BYU up 54-45.
Brock Zylstra reached double-digit points with a 3-pointer at the 12:17 mark in the second half to put BYU up 65-57.
Matt Carlino, Brandon Davies and Tyler Haws have posted exceptional numbers through BYU's two NIT games. Carlino is averaging 19.0 points, 9.0 assists, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals and has made 9 of 18 threes. Davies is averaging 24.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.0 blocks. Haws is averaging 30.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists.

Team Notes

Dave Rose started Brandon Davies, Tyler Haws, Brock Zylstra, Nate Austin and Matt Carlino tonight for the third-straight game.
BYU now has 23 wins this season for its eighth-straight 20-win season, all coming under head coach Dave Rose.
Tonight’s dunks came from Tyler Haws at the 15:33 mark of the second half and Brandon Davies at the 14:35 mark of the second half.
BYU led Mercer 44-35 at halftime for its 22nd halftime lead this season.
The Cougars have now won a postseason game in four-straight seasons, a program record.
The Cougars tied their season high with 10 3-pointers against Mercer.

Game Trends

BYU started the game with 3-straight 3-pointers from Matt Carlino, Brock Zylstra and Carlino again to give the Cougars a 9-3 lead at the 18:22 mark. The nine points were part of an 11-0 run by BYU, making the score 11-3 at the 17:51 mark.
Between 4:20 and 2:03 in the first half, BYU went on a 6-0 run to take a 38-28 lead.
Between 1:54 and 1:30 in the first half, BYU made back-to-back 3-pointers for a 6-0 run to take a 44-30 lead.
Between 17:35 and 17:09 in the second half, BYU went on a 6-0 run to take a 54-45 lead.
Between 11:25 and 7:30 in the second half, BYU went on a 9-0 run to take a 74-60 lead.

BYU head coach Dave Rose
Mercer is a really good team with a lot of good young players. They’ve got a great future and they were the champions of their league this year, so we knew how good they were. I thought we were good from start to finish tonight. We played with a lot of heart and a lot of passion. That gets us excited as a staff to see that in our guys.

A slogan for us right now is to ‘go out and get another game’ and that’s what we did tonight, we got another game. Our guys are playing with a lot of togetherness and I think our practice sessions are paying off.

Brandon Davies
I played my hardest because I know it could’ve been my last game at home, so I wanted to leave it all on the court. Nobody on this team wants to be done yet. We’re just rolling right now and playing for one more game.

Matt Carlino
We’re playing free right now and things are just clicking. When you can play free, good things happen.

Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman
It was a shootout, and we didn’t make enough shots. BYU was unbelievable tonight. Carlino did a great job from beyond the arc. I thought our guys fought back with all those runs — we brought it back within four a few times. Our bigs tried hard, but we couldn’t stop Davies. It is hard to come back when BYU was hitting 35, 40 footers. We didn’t play as well as we would have liked to, but BYU was every part of that.

During conference play, everyone knows everything about everyone, but it is hard to know how players are going to play in the postseason.

Travis Smith
From the beginning, I have just loved being with my team. That is going to be the hardest part, not being with my team anymore. We have had the same team for the last two years in a row, so it will be hard not being with them. We knew BYU was a good offensive team, but I was surprised how deep they were shooting tonight. There were even a few times when we had our hands in their face, and they still made the deep shots.”