Cougars hold off Stanford's late run for the win

BYU vs. Stanford Notes and Quotes

BYU vs. Stanford Box Score

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PROVO, Utah – BYU men’s basketball held off a late push by Stanford for a 79-77 victory led by Tyler Haws’ 24 points Saturday night in the Marriott Center.

"The Stanford win last year became huge for us late," BYU basketball coach Dave Rose said. "We don't really know going into a preseason schedule which teams are going to take off and be big. The Texas win last year was big and we didn't know that at the time. And the fact that we've come close in a couple others, this was really important for us. It was really important for us to win a close game against a really good team. This is a really good team with those three fifth-year seniors."

Haws added four assists and three rebounds with Kyle Collinsworth finishing with 15 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and two steals on the night.

Chase Fischer followed with 16 points, three assists and two steals. Anson Winder contributed 13 points and four rebounds, while Isaac Neilson added six points, six rebounds and two blocks.

The Cougars got off to a quick 13-4 start that included Haws’ jumper for the first points of the game, Fischer’s 3-pointer and layup. Stanford’s 6-0 run cut its deficit to three, but was answered with Haws’ jumper to push BYU’s lead to 15-10 with 14:53 left in the half.

Following Fischer’s baseline floater at the 11:31 mark, Haws connected on two shots from deep to give BYU its first double-digit lead at 26-16 with 7:55 remaining. One minute later, Fischer assisted Collinsworth in the post for a dunk to maintain BYU’s 10-point lead. The Cardinal reeled off an 11-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 33-32, but Collinsworth’s drive before the buzzer put BYU back up, 36-35 at the half.

Haws led the way in the first half with 13 points with Collinsworth adding 10 points, four rebounds and four assists. Fischer contributed nine points and three assists before halftime.

Stanford went on a 6-0 run early in the second half to take a 41-39 lead, but the Cougars responded with Winder’s 3-pointer and Collinsworth’s backdoor pass to Haws for the layup to retake a five-point lead 6:11 into the half. With 10 minutes remaining, the Cougars completed an 8-0 run to push their lead to 58-49.

Collinsworth’s putback was part of an 11-2 run that gave BYU its largest lead of the game at 13 with under five minutes remaining. A late 13-2 push by the Cardinal brought them within two points, but the Cougars took the game 79-77 on Stanford's missed shot at the buzzer.

BYU outscored Stanford on second chance points 25-13 and scored 22 points off Stanford’s turnovers.

The Cougars stay home to host UMass on Tuesday at 12 p.m. MST. The game will be televised live on BYUtv and broadcast on the Cougar IMG Sports Network on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM.