Cougars defeat San Francisco in overtime to advance to WCC finals

BYU vs. San Francisco Notes and Quotes

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LAS VEGAS – Kyle Collinsworth’s double-double and Tyer Haws' 24 points led the BYU men’s basketball team over San Francisco in a 79-77 overtime win on Monday to advance to the West Coast Conference championship game.

"We got some great individual performances from a lot of players," BYU men's basketball coach Dave Rose said. "This is one of those wins where you just take it as a group and be thankful for the great plays that were made by our guys and then move on."

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Collinsworth finished with a double-double, 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Eric Mika finished with a double-double of his own with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Haws' 24 points were a game high and he hit 14 of 14 from the free-throw line and grabbed four rebounds on the night.

Anson Winder added 15 points and five rebounds with Matt Carlino scoring 11 points off the bench.

The Cougars scored the first six points in overtime with Collinsworth’s putback and Haws’ two trips to the free-throw line for BYU’s 70-64 lead. Mika’s dish to Haws led to a layup to maintain the six-point lead with 2:39 remaining. The Dons brought it back within one after connecting on a 3-pointer, but Collinsworth responded with two free throws with 0:24 left. Following a Winder free throw, USF had possession down by two with eight seconds remaining but misfired on a three at the buzzer. 

BYU opened the game with an 8-0 start with Winder and Collinsworth going coast to coast for layups in the first minute of the game. Collinsworth scored the next four points for BYU on a drive to the rim and a baseline jumper to lead San Francisco by seven with 15:24 remaining. After extending the lead by double-digits on Mika’s putback and free throws, Haws’ turnaround jumper maintained BYU’s 20-10 lead.

Following a block by Josh Sharp, Winder connected on a 3-pointer at the 8:06 mark for a 27-17 lead. Trailing 29-20, the Dons answered with an 11-0 run to take a two-point lead with under four minutes left in the half. Winder’s baseline layup tied it at 33 a piece and Collinsworth’s offensive rebound and dish to Winder for a layup gave BYU the 35-33 lead with 1:42 remaining.

San Francisco scored the final four points of the half to lead 37-35 at the break. Haws led the Cougars with 10 points, going 6 of 6 from the charity stripe, with Winder scoring nine points on 4 of 5 shooting.

Both teams went without a field goal for the first 2:20 of the second half until Haws grabbed his own miss for the putback to give BYU a 38-37 lead. After a San Francisco 3-pointer put the Dons ahead 43-40, Winder responded with his second make from beyond the arc to tie it at 43-43. Carlino’s first field goal came on a three-point play at the 12:19 mark to break a 45-all tie.

With 11:18 remaining, Carlino connected on a 3-pointer and followed it up with another three-point play from Collinsworth’s backdoor pass to extend BYU’s lead to 56-51. Collinsworth’s layup gave the Cougars a seven-point lead with 10:11 left to play.

Winder recorded a steal to lead to a Haws layup on the fastbreak and increase BYU’s lead to 64-56 at the 6:14 mark. The Dons closed the gap, going on an 8-0 run to tie it at 64-64 with 3:21 remaining. San Francisco and BYU went scoreless for the remainder of the period to send it into overtime.

BYU finished the night going a season-best 85.7 percent from the free-throw line, 24 of 28, and outrebounded the Dons 45-35.

The Cougars will advance to the WCC championship game to take on Gonzaga on Tuesday at 6 p.m. PDT. The game will be televised live on ESPN and broadcast on the Cougar IMG Sports Network on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM.