BYU vs. Pepperdine Notes & Quotes

Player Notes

Haws finished with a season-high 35 points, one rebound and one steal. He was 11 of 23 shooting, 4 of 6 from behind the arc and 9 of 9 from the free-throw line.

He reached 1,500 points on a free throw with seven minutes left in the second half. Haws is the third fastest Cougar to reach 1,500 points, doing so in 86 games. Only Danny Ainge and Kresimir Cosic did it quicker.

With a free throw with 1:14 left in the game, Haws passed Kresimir Cosic for 14th on the career scoring list. That basket was also the 11th straight point Haws scored for the Cougars. He also passed Joe Nelson for 15th on the scoring list earlier in the game.

It was Haws' 30th straight game scoring in double figures. His 20-point game passed Cosic for 5th all-time in career 20-point games at BYU with 39. His 30-point game passed Timo Saarelainen for 8th all-time in career 30-point games with six.

Kyle Collinsworth

Collinsworth finished one assist shy of a triple-double, totalling 15 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists and three steals. It's his fourth double-double of the season and first since BYU played Pepperdine two games ago. His nine assists tied his career high, which he first accomplished against Stanford earlier this season.

Skyler Halford

Halford followed up his 28-point night with 18 points on 7 of 14 shooting, including 2 of 6 from 3-point range. He also totaled six rebounds and an assist.

Nate Austin

Austin finished with nine rebounds, six points and two blocks. His nine rebounds are his highest in conference play this season.

Josh Sharp

With Eric Mika out, Sharp made his first start of the year and tied his season high with 16 minutes played. He finished with five rebounds and an assist.

Luke Worthington

With Mika out, Worthington tied a season high with 11 minutes played.

Matt Carlino

Carlino finished with 10 points, six assists and three rebounds. That's the most assists he's had since the Prairie View A&M game on Dec. 11.

Team Notes

BYU head coach Dave Rose started Collinsworth, Halford, Haws, Sharp and Austin together for the first time this season. BYU is now 1-0 with those starters.

The Cougars improved from the first time they played Pepperdine in a number of categories. BYU shot 46 percent at home to 40 on the road against the Waves. The Cougars improved from nine percent to 41 percent shooting from 3-point range and increased their assists from 12 to 19 on the same number of made field goals.

The Cougars had four players score in double digits for the fifth straight game. They were Haws, Halford, Collinsworth and Carlino.

Runs

The Cougars started the game on a 12-0 run (Haws 7, Halford 3, Austin 2) before Pepperdine called a timeout just 3:14 into the game.

BYU took a commanding lead late thanks to 11 points from Haws during a 13-2 run. Halford added the other two points.

Quotes

BYU head coach Dave Rose

"That was quite a battle. It was an interesting game because I think both teams prepared for a rematch of the game a few days ago and it turned out that both teams played completely different lineups than they did the first game. It was a good game that went right down to the wire and we made some big shots and stops late."

On having only one true-post player in the game over the last few minutes:

"We had Nate (Austin) and Josh (Sharp) with four fouls and we were trying to save some type of lineup with some size until the end to rebound. So we were just trying to get through some minutes there and they played well together. It was tough getting a rebound, there were two or three fouls called right around the basket with our guys battling. That was the key, though, our guys battling on both ends."

On Kyle Collinsworth’s near triple-double:

"The spots we asked him to play tonight, he was really dialed in on being a team guy and getting a team win. With 15 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists with two turnovers in 35 minutes, that’s a good night’s work and we’re planning to get him some rest."

Tyler Haws

“We knew they were going to make a run. No team in this league will ever go away and they hit a bunch of shots. We had some lapses on defense and there’s some things we need to get better at, but I give them credit for making plays.”

On leading the push at the end of the game:

“I was just trying to stay aggressive and I felt like I was getting good looks when my teammates were finding me. I think they got tired a little bit, so I was able to get out in transition those last couple of minutes.”

Kyle Collinsworth

“We always want to get the ball to Tyler down the stretch. They were tired, so we swung it around and I hit him in the corner twice in a row for some 3s and that was huge for us to break free.”

Pepperdine head coach Marty Wilson

Overall:

"Our guys fought, our guys battled defensively and we hung in there. We needed to do a better job on Haws, his penetration, and Collinsworth. But overall, without the guys we were missing, I thought our guys played hard and played smart and we stayed together when they made their run."

Halftime thoughts:

"We told them to keep their heads up and feel good about what they’d done. We needed to limit their run-outs off of our turnovers and offensive rebounds, and that’s where they hurt us. That was a topic of discussion from the previous game. That’s where they’re very good. When you turn it over, they create baskets off of those."

Pepperdine defense:

"We expected them to shoot the ball better at home. I thought we defended them pretty well in certain instances. I thought we fell asleep in a couple of possessions when Haws hit a 3 and Halford hit a 3, where we could have made it a one possession game."

Playing BYU without Mika:

"We didn’t have to double in the post. We didn’t have to fight in the post. We knew that Haws and Collinsworth were going to have to try to take over the game and they did. We expected that. We knew that Halford was going to be aggressive and try to create shots and he did."