BYU vs. Colorado Mesa Game Notes

BYU vs. Colorado Mesa Game Story

BYU vs. Colorado Mesa Box Score

BYU vs. Colorado Mesa Photo Gallery

 

For the third straight game, BYU had six players score in double figures. Matt Carlino led the way with 16, Kyle Collinsworth with 15, Anson Winder with 14, Skyler Halford with 12 and Eric Mika with 11. Mika, Winder Collinsworth and Carlino have scored in double digits in each of those games. Carlino and Collinsworth are the only players to score in double figures in every game this season.

 

Nate Austin set a career high for rebounds with 12. He added four points, two assists and two blocks. Austin was the only Cougar with double digit rebounds.

 

Collinsworth led the team in assists with six. He has yet to have a game with fewer than four assists this season. 

 

Coming off career highs in points, four players didn't repeat their career-best performances but did reach double figures on the second night of a back-to-back.

 

Bartley, who scored 16 points and grabbed seven boards on Friday, ended with 10 points and three rebounds on Saturday.

Winder put in a career-high 22 Friday, but scored 14 Saturday.

Halford scored 15 against Mt. St. Mary's and put in 12 against Colorado Mesa.

Mika scored 20 and had two blocks Friday, but got into foul trouble and finished with 11 points, three rebounds and two steals.

 

BYU totaled 42 points in the paint, the second most of the season. Unlike the 24 fast break points from Friday's 58 points in the paint, the Cougars only scored four on the break Saturday. Mika, Austin, Sharp and Worthington didn't score as much as Friday, but the Cougars still got to the basket thanks to penetration by the perimeter players.

 

The back-to-back might also have been to blame for a unique night from the 3-point line. BYU started the game 0-16 from behind the arc and finished 1 of 21. Collinsworth made the first 3-pointer with 9:27 left in the second half. Colorado Mesa finished 9 of 23 for 39 percent from behind the 3-point line. BYU entered the game shooting 45 percent from 3-point range.

 

While tired legs may have hurt 3-point shooting, they seemed to help from the free-throw line. BYU had shot 66, 65 and 60 percent from the free throw line in its first three games. On Saturday night, the Cougars shot 72 percent on 31 of 43 from the stripe. Anson Winder was 6 of 6 and Skyler Halford was 4 of 4, while Frank Bartley was 6 of 7.

 

In the first set of back-to-back games of the season, Collinsworth and Winder each played 30-plus minutes on Friday and Saturday. Collinsworth led the team with 66 minutes over the two games. Austin joined them in the 30-minute club on Saturday after only playing 25 on Friday.

 

The Cougars used a 21-1 run to start the second half, which made it 57-29. The run lasted nearly eight minutes and Colorado Mesa's only points came on a free throw. During the run, Carlino scored six points, Collinsworth dished out half his six assists and Austin grabbed five of his career-high 12 rebounds.

 

 

 

Colorado Mesa head coach Andy Shantz Quotes

"I thought our kids really competed tonight, they really tried to execute our game plan. We just knew we were going to have to get them into a half court game if we wanted a chance to win. For the majority of the game we did that and there was a short stint there in the beginning of the first half where we did do a very good job of that."

 

"Their guards are big and strong and they are really difficult to keep out of the paint, so we wanted to make them one dimensional. We said we would give up threes to them tonight and we thought their strong point was attacking the basket, and it is. They got to the free throw line too many times, and luckily they weren’t hitting 3-pointers."

 

Head coach Andy Shantz