BYU vs. Adams State Postgame Notes and Quotes

TEAM NOTES

The BYU offensive production saw its highest efficiency of the season with 97 points, 25 assists and a season-low 11 turnovers.

BYU has out-rebounded its opponent in every game this season, pulling down 48 boards to Adams State’s 36. Kyle Davis led all players with 10. 

Rebounding for the Cougars has improved from 95 (29, 33, 33) in the first three games of 2014-15 to 167 (68, 51, 48) in 2015-16.

Five BYU players scored in double-figures for the first time since the game at San Francisco on Jan. 3, 2015 (Emery-20, Kaufusi-14, Davis-10, Collinsworth-12, Aytes-11).

BYU’s 59.4 (41 of 69) percent shooting is its best since Jan. 3, 2015, when the Cougars shot 60.0 (33 of 55) percent in the 99-68 win at San Francisco. The team shot 57.6 from the field in the first half and 61.1 percent in the second half.

PLAYER NOTES

Kyle Davis tallied 10 points and 10 rebounds while recording his second double-double in three games as a Cougar.

Nick Emery scored a career-high 20 points to go along with a career-high six assists. He surpassed his previous career-best with 16 points in the first half. Other Cougar freshmen with 20 points at least one time in their first three games include: Mike Rose (1st), Russell Larson (1st), Shawn Bradley (1st), Fred Roberts (2nd) Danny Ainge (2nd), Eric Mika (3rd) and Matt Carlino (3rd).

Corbin Kaufusi tied a career high with 4 blocks while scoring in double-figures for the second consecutive game and second time in his career. He tallied 14 points on 7-of-9 from the field with seven rebounds in 13 minutes of play. Kaufusi has scored 37 points through three games. He did not reach 37 points until his 12th game played in 2014-15.

Kyle Collinsworth scored in double figures for the 68th time in his career, tying Kresimir Cosic for 17th most in BYU history. He shot 5 for 7 with 12 points, six rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals.

Jamal Aytes scored a career-best 11 points in 18 minutes played.

Zac Seljaas set a career high in points with six on 2-for-2 shooting from 3-point range.

QUOTES

BYU coach Dave Rose

"Yesterday there were a lot of things that we needed to do to improve our team. Tonight we made some steps forward in that progress. The fact we only turned the ball over 11 times was probably the best we’ve played in that aspect in the last two or three games. We had a 24 turnover game and then an 18 turnover game. The fact we were able to keep it under 12 was a pretty good number for us, especially the way we started out the game. We had four in the first four minutes."

"I thought our execution was better. We got the ball in the post a lot tonight. For the most part they were pretty good with the ball. We had a pretty good shooting percentage. That’s important for us."

"We’re a good 3-point shooting team. I don’t know if that’s the real strength of our team. I think our real strength is inside at the rim. Along with those post players, Kyle (Collinsworth) is a great post-up player. If we can get the ball to him we can create a lot of difficult match ups."

Second half lineup:

"The lineup was put out there defensively to not let them get started. They had such a good start in the first half. I thought these matchups were the best with Chatman and Emery. Collinsworth did a good job on their best player Shakir. He challenged their length, which caused them problems. We had a nice run at the half to finish the game. I wanted to make sure when we started the half we had a team that was defensively matched up for us."

Changing their offensive options with five players in double-digit scoring:

"Every team has pretty good offensive players. The key is to find good team offensive players, guys that will score in your system. That’s what we’ll go and chart tonight. The other night there were so many possessions where it was just out of what we wanted to do. Guys wanted to create an attack and do it on their own. Tonight we were much better at playing within our system. Guys performed in that too. It seems like if you can score for one team, you can score for every team, but there’s issues being able to fit in a certain way that you play and hopefully we’ll get guys up to speed as soon as possible. It was much better tonight."

BYU Guard Nick Emery

"Tonight started on the defensive end. I think we got stops and that got us confident in our offensive side too. I believe this team when we find ourselves on defense our offensive game comes right behind it."

"This week was a little different. It's always tough coming back from a loss. I think we learned a lot from that loss. Free throws and turnovers were a big part of that loss. We really emphasized today executing our offense. I think that helped us this week, executing in practice, and that related to the game."

"I think we're a high-paced team. Sometimes it's hard to get into that pace, but tonight we really dug down deep. We learned from our mistakes in the last game and were able to pull this one off with our pace."

BYU Forward Jamal Aytes

On what coach said during media time outs:

"The coach was calling us out. We had practice all week just trying to execute and make smart plays with no turnovers. We didn't get on our game plan so coach had to wake us up and snap us out of it so we could play how we should play."

What coach said in the locker room during halftime:

"He called us out. We knew we weren't playing well in the first half, so it was kind of a gut check. He said come there run your stuff and execute like we've been practicing. In the second half that's what we did."

Having an identity as post scorer players:

"We're just basketball players honesty. If we can score, we're going to score. If we can find an open man, we'll find an open man. We just want to play basketball and play it the right way."

Adams State coach Russ Caton

"It was a good experience. It was good for us to come and play in the big gym against a big team and see how we could compete. We did compete for about 10 minutes and that was about it. I don't know if that was all we had or if they just figured it out. It was a great experience for our guys, though, to figure out what that level is like."

"BYU is a very smart team. They got a feel for us and what we were doing, and they countered and simplified things. We didn't have the muscle to take them inside and it was a tough game. If you can't get them in the post, they'll kill you from the outside. It's basically picking your poison."