BYU vs. Utah State Notes and Quotes

Player Notes

Tyler Haws scored 21 in his return to EnergySolutions Arena where he scored 42 points against Virginia Tech the last time the Cougars visited. He finished with two rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Haws passed Dick Nemelka at 1,299 points and scored his 1,300th point with a FT at 17:12 to give BYU a 10-4 lead. Haws is now 21st all-time in scoring, just 18 points behind his father Marty Haws.

Haws passed Trent Plaisted for 14th in all-time free throws made with 1:26 left in the second half.

His 20-point game moved him into a tie for seventh all-time with 34 20-point games in his career alongside Russell Larson.

Matt Carlino

Carlino was the second leading scorer for the Cougars and also grabbed four rebounds, made two assists and stole two balls.

His two steals tied Mark Bigelow for 13th all-time in career steals with 116.

Eric Mika

Mika finished a rebound shy of the first double-double of his career. The nine rebounds did tie his career high set against Iowa State last week.

Mika did score in double figures for the seventh-consecutive game. He finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and a steal.

Frank Bartley IV

Bartley set a career high in second half scoring with his 11 points. Bartley recorded one of everything with 14 points, five rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal. He also drew a charge.

Over the past three games, Bartley has been the only bench player to score in double figures, doing it against Texas and Utah State.

Kyle Collinsworth

Collinsworth finished three points and two assists shy of a triple-double on Saturday. He totaled one of everything with seven points, 13 rebounds, two steals and two blocks.

Collinsworth set a season high with 13 rebounds topping the 10 he grabbed against Weber State and Mount St. Mary's. His eight assists were the most since he dished out nine against Stanford.

Skyler Halford scored eight points, four in each half, in 13 minutes total.

Team Notes

The starting lineup with Carlino, Collinsworth, Haws, Austin and Mika is now 4-2 on the season

Four players scored in double figures for the seventh time this season. The Cougars were coming off the only game this season where they didn't have at least four players score in double digits.

The Cougars totaled 10 steals on the night, the most since the Cougars stole 12 balls versus Colorado Mesa. It was also the first time this season, seven different BYU players stole a ball, topping the six who did it against Colorado Mesa.

Frank Bartley IV put BYU up for good with a free throw with 10:16 left in the second half. Two minutes later, the Cougars reeled off an 11-2 run that lasted four minutes and put BYU up 74-63.

Quotes

BYU head coach Dave Rose

“I just thought that we needed some guys to attack on offense. I really felt like the end of that first half we got a little bit stagnant in our offense and then they kind of diced us up a little bit and got a lead. So we felt going into that second half if we get some guys to really attack them, it might change the pace of the game. Frank did a great job, played a great game, (and) a terrific second half.”

“Kyle is the difference in the game, as far as our stats are concerned. The matchups where he was able to guard inside, we could switch some of the ball screens. He was just a warrior tonight.

“In our game plan, we really felt like his size could really cause some of those wings problems. He didn’t cause Butterfield many problems. We had a hard time getting to him and stopping him. As good as their point guards and their two wings are, I think Kyle was really able to help us in some of the things that we could do as far as being versatile in our defensive approach.”

“These guys are fighters, and that second half, it came down to what I feel are two really good basketball teams just trying to figure out how to get a win. We made a couple more plays. I think Stew’s going to have a terrific year. He’s got a great team with good leadership and great experience. I like his bench and I really like his roster.”

“That was what our whole conversation was about at halftime, was that we just can’t settle for open-space jump shots. We got to go right at these guys, and I think we did a better job at that in the second half.”

Kyle Collinsworth

“Frank came in and he played great and so we kept the small lineup. We just fueled off Frank because he played an awesome game”

“We were a lot scrappier in the second half. We were getting all the loose balls and I think that’s why we won that game.”

“When Utah State gets a lead and gets in their sets it’s tough to beat them. They slow the game down, run their offense and control the defense.”

“I think we wore them out with our pace and we just got stops in the second half. We were also scoring when we got those stops and that’s why we had a big lead going down the stretch.”