BYU vs. Colorado College postgame notes

BYU vs. Colorado College Game Story

Player Notes

Matt Carlino led five players in double digits with 23 points. The junior was 8 of 12 from the floor including 2 of 4 from beyond the arc.

Kyle Collinsworth had the only double-double of the game, scoring 13 points and leading the team with 11 rebounds.

Freshmen Connection: Eric Mika finished with six points, four rebounds and two blocks while dealing with foul trouble. Luke Worthington chipped in 10 points, six rebounds and one block. Worthington led the team with five offensive rebounds. Frank Bartley IV added two points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals. All three freshmen played 15 minutes or more in the game.

Tyler Haws finished with 14 points, two assists and one steal. The junior was perfect from the charity stripe, going 5 of 5.

Anson Winder finished with 13 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Winder hit the most three pointers in the game, nailing three.

Carlino and Skyler Halford led the team with three steals each.

Dunks: Nate Austin and Eric Mika threw it down. Austin dunked it over a defender on a fast break after a Bartley steal. Mika followed a miss by Luke Worthington with a two-handed slam in the second half.

Team Notes

BYU started the game 5 for 6 (hitting its first three shots) to open up with an 11-0 lead three minutes into the game. With the Tigers leading 24-23 and just under 10 minutes left in the half, BYU went on a 19-6 run over the next seven minutes to open a 12 point lead, 42-30.

To start the second half, BYU held Colorado College to 1 for 13 shooting from the floor to go on a 20-4 run in the first nine minutes of action.

BYU had 25 bench points and 50 points in the paint. The Cougars forced 17 turnovers that led to 26 points.

Defensively, the Cougars held Colorado College to 36.7 percent shooting from the field and 30 percent from behind the 3-point line. In the second half, BYU held the Tigers to 6 for 28 from the field or 21.4 percent.

Trends

Seven Cougars played double-digit minutes in the first half with Tyler Haws leading the way playing 15 minutes.

BYU starters: Eric Mika, Kyle Collinsworth, Tyler Haws, Anson Winder and Matt Carlino. The Cougars had the same starters for the second half.

First sub of the game: Bartley and Austin were the first subs of the game, coming in at the 13:48 mark. The two subbed in for Carlino and Winder. The first sub of the second half was Austin who subbed for Collinsworth.

Thirteen players saw the court tonight with 10 players on the court for 10 minutes or more. Collinsworth played a team-high 25 minutes.

Quotes

Kyle Collinsworth

"I think coach wanted me to get in rhythm in the second half. It's my first game in two and a half years. I'm just getting my legs under me and getting my confidence up."

"The second half felt more like me. Less thinking and more playing."

Anson Winder

On Colorado College climbing back in the game:

"It's frustrating because we stress defense a lot in practice and we want to be a better defensive team than we were last year. That's something we're going to work on and get better at."

On Kyle:

"He probably is our most versatile player. He makes things so much easier with all the things he does – shooting, rebounding, getting to the rim, defense. He's definitely going to be a guy that's going to lead us this year."

What are you most excited for this year?

"Hopefully winning the conference championship, getting in the tournament and going as deep as possible. That's been our goal every year and hopefully we get there this year."

BYU Coach Dave Rose

"I think that we accomplished a lot of things tonight and we got a lot of players a lot of minutes. For the most part, we accomplished what you hope to accomplish in an exhibition game. We saw some good things and saw a lot of things we need to improve on. Hopefully this week of practice and this experience will really help our team move forward."

"I thought we shared the ball well. We had a few issues but for the most part we moved the ball well and guys were taking good shots. We took a lot of quick shots off the dribble without a pass and hopefully we can show guys what we need to do there."

"In the second half we were more aggressive defensively. We gradually got more aggressive as the game went on which was good for our defense."

On Collinsworth:

"I think he’s in a good spot. He is a great rebounder. The one thing we wanted Kyle to do was to go out there and do what he does well and you saw a lot of that tonight."

"The only way you are going to feel comfortable again is to get out there and play. Experience is the best thing. He knows what it feels like from a couple years ago, and now he needs to get out there where he’s really comfortable again. I think that progressed as the night went on."

"I feel really comfortable with him in that he gets along with this group of guys. That will really help in this adjustment. The guys are really pulling for each other even though they are all trying to compete for positions. We have the vibes to have good team chemistry."

On the freshmen:

"I really like the things that each of those guys brought to the game. They all played about 20 minutes. Frank brought us some really good things especially on the ball defensively. Luke was really good as a physical presence in the post. We are going to need all of them."

On Winder:

"I’m really happy for him. I thought he really made a difference for us tonight especially in the second half."

Game analysis:

"In the first half we just didn’t play like we practice. What you want to do is establish those practice habits so when you get into the game you see them. That was the improvement we saw from the first half to the second."

"If we were going to make mistakes defensively and give them an open shot, you want them to hit it or you’ll get a false sense of being able to guard. The fact that they hit a few of those really helped us in our adjustment at halftime to get our minds right and our execution better."