Cougars win final tuneup before regular season play

Braiden Shaw and Nate Austin Postgame Press Conference

Dave Rose Postgame Press Conference

PROVO, Utah – Cousy Award watch list finalist Kyle Collinsworth saw his first game action of the season Saturday night as BYU knocked off Alaska 77-64 at the Marriott Center in its final exhibition game before regular season play begins next week.

“I’m obviously pleased that we won the game, but there are a lot of things from the game tonight that concern us,” BYU basketball coach Dave Rose said. “We never really got into a flow. Hopefully, we can take what we have in practice and bring it to a game when the big lights are on. For next week, hopefully we can correct a lot of the mistakes we made and get ready for the home opener. I thought there were some good individual performances, but as a team, I didn’t think we played very well together. Hopefully, we can fix that.”â€‹

Collinsworth had a typically balanced night to pace the Cougars with 14 points to along with six rebounds and three assists. The senior’s running mate Chase Fischer added 18 points to lead all scorers. Newcomers Nick Emery and Jakob Hartsock chipped in 11 points each, with Emery adding eight rebounds and three assists. Braiden Shaw was perfect from the field, going four of four for nine points and seven boards.

Alaska started the game on a 5-0 run to take an early lead. A bucket by Kyle Collinsworth and three pointers from Chase Fischer and Nick Emery gave BYU its first lead at 8-5 with 15:45 remaining. The Cougars would never trail again.

A head fake from Collinsworth gave him separation on his defender and a wide open lane for a two-handed dunk to make it 10-7 with 14:00 left in the first. Hartsock made back-to-back triples to put BYU ahead 19-10 at the 9:55 mark.

Two buckets from Jake Toolson and an Emery triple sparked a 7-2 BYU run to stretch the lead to 28-17 with 4:49 remaining in the first half. After an Alaska made jumper, Collinsworth went on a personal 4-0 run capped by a steal and layup to lengthen the Cougars’ lead to 32-19 with 2:23 left. Five Fischer free throws at the tail end of the half put BYU in the locker room with a 39-25 advantage.

After a flurry of misses from both sides to start the second half, Hartsock got BYU on the board with a bank shot from inside the paint at 18:13 to go up 41-25. The Cougars would miss their next seven shots, which allowed Alaska to cut the deficit to six, 41-35 with 15:09 to play. A bucket from Shaw and a putback dunk from Nate Austin on back-to-back possessions put BYU back up by 10, 45-35, with 13:59 remaining.

The Cougars made three-straight shots in a span that included threes from Cory Calvert and Hartsock and a dunk by Shaw to push the lead to 14 at 59-45 at the 9:04.

Some cold shooting from BYU over the next five minutes in a stretch that saw them make just one field goal prevented the Cougars from taking a commanding lead. However, BYU did make six of eight free throw attempts to keep the Nanooks at bay, 67-54 with 3:40 remaining.

Fischer got BYU back on track from the field near the end with two threes in as many tries to put things out of reach at 73-55 with 2:39 left. Fischer led the Cougars with 18 points, and he finished off the night’s scoring with a layup to cap a 77-64 victory over Alaska.

The Cougars will return to the Marriott Center for their season opener against former BYU assistant coach Mark Pope and Utah Valley next Friday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. MST. The game will be broadcast on BYUtv as well as the Cougar IMG Sports Network, KSL NewsRadio 102.7 FM/1160 AM and BYU Radio – Sirius XM 143.