BYU vs. Belmont Notes & Quotes

BYU vs. Belmont Box Score

BYU vs. Belmont Photo Gallery

Player Notes

Kyle Collinsworth finished one rebound shy of a triple-double with 26 points, 10 assists and 9 rebounds. He tied his season high with 13 first half points and set season highs in points and assists. The double-double was the 24th of his career which tied him with Rafael Araujo and Brandon Davies for 10th all-time at BYU.

Collinsworth passed Eldon Brinley, Matt Carlino and Gary Trost, while tying Doug Richards for 25th on the BYU career scoring list. He passed Jonathan Tavernari for fifth in career steals. His 10 assists passed Randy Reid for sixth in career assists at BYU. The double figure game was the 70th of his career which is 16th in BYU history.

Chase Fischer scored all 19 points in the second half making five 3-pointers for the first time this season. He passed Austin Ainge and Randy Reid in career 3-point field goals made with 115.

Nick Emery scored a career-high 27 points on 9 of 17 shooting. He was also 5 of 11 from 3-point range, both career highs. He added 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.

Kyle Davis tallied his third double-double of the season with 11 points and 14 rebounds. He added 2 blocks, a steal and an assist. It was also his fifth straight game with at least seven rebounds and 10 or more points.

Team Notes

For the second consecutive game, Fischer, Emery, Collinsworth, Davis and Kaufusi started the game for the Cougars. BYU is now 2-0 with those starters.

The Cougars are 4-0 when scoring 70 or more points this season.

Belmont is the first of four opponents this season who played in the NCAA Tournament last season. The Cougars face Utah on Wednesday before playing Harvard and Gonzaga later in the season.

With the tempo from both teams, BYU set season highs for 3-pointers made and attempted going 13 of 27 topping the highs of 7 and 25. The Cougars also gave up the most field goals of the season (26), 3-pointers made (11) and 3-pointers attempted (31), topping the old highs of 26, 9 and 29, respectively.

BYU’s first half runs helped keep them in the game as Belmont led by as many as 11. A 6-0 run took a 12-10 lead at 12:44 in first half. Emery had 4 points and a steal and Davis scored 2 on a dunk. Another 6-0 run cut the lead to 25-20 at 8:35 in first half as Emery and Collinsworth each scored 3 points. A 10-0 run tied the game at 30-30 with 3:53 left in the first half as Emery hit two 3-pointers and Collinsworth added 4 points of his own.

In the second half, BYU used runs to extend its lead and control the game. Another pair of Emery 3-pointers gave BYU a 53-49 lead with 16:27 left in the game. A 12-2 run put BYU up 68-55 with 12:22 left in the game as Fischer hit three 3-pointers. Collinsworth added 3 points of his own on a three-point play. The finale, a 9-0 run, almost exclusively came from the free-throw line and made it 86-68. The final three points came from a Fischer 3-pointer, while Emery added 2 points from the line and Collinsworth added 4 points from the charity stripe.

Quotes

BYU head coach Dave Rose

“This is a good win for us. Our guys competed hard. We played with a lot of urgency and energy tonight. Even when we got off to a slow start offensively, we had all the shots out of our sets that we started to hit. We just had a hard time hitting shots at first. In the second half, we were much better. We've always been a pretty consistent shot-making team.”

“Kyle​ (Colinworth)’s performance on both ends helped us out a lot. We made an adjustment at halftime and put him on their No. 23. He had 19 in the first half, and he only had seven points in the second half. And, he was one rebound away from a triple-double. He was definitely a force for us tonight.”

On Nick Emery:

“Nick is starting to be a really consistent scoring guard for us. He's playing with some real consistency.”

Important win:

“This was a really important game. It gets a lot tougher from here. We play eight of our next 10 games out of the Marriott Center. That will be quite a run there to see what our team is truly going to be like. We're looking forward to the challenge.”

Chase Fischer

Finding your rhythm:

“It helps when you make shots, obviously, but I think we're starting to play together. We've had a few games and the chemistry is beginning to flow. Chemistry is everything offensively in basketball, and everyone is starting to find their spots. Kyle did a great job of finding everyone. We shared the ball well too.”

Differences for him personally tonight:

“Nothing really. I've been trying to get going every game. I've been struggling. It's probably one of the worst slumps I've had in my career. But, my teammates have been pumping me up and my coaches have believed in me and I've believed in myself. I've put in a lot of extra work. So, it was nice to get some shots to go in in the second half and start to get my mojo back.”

Kyle Collinsworth

Difference in the second half:

“I think we just focused on getting stops, especially on No. 23, instead of just trading baskets. That was the difference.”

Offensive key:

“Just consistency. Chase and I have been working all summer and we felt like we haven't played the best three games previous to this. The key is, whether you play good or bad in a game, Chase and I will play the same and do the same thing after practice. It's all about consistency. Coach put me in good positions tonight off of ball screens, so that helped too.”

Belmont head coach Rick Byrd

"BYU played extremely well. You've got to give the credit to them. They were the team that wanted to win the game. They knocked down shots tonight that they haven't been making before. They got hot, and everyone felt it."

"We have to get better defensively. They were the more physical team, they were more mentally tough.​ They got 16 offensive rebounds, we brought down three. You can't come to play at a place like this against a program this good and give them 13 more possessions."

"We have a very good schedule this year, and BYU is certainly a program that has national respect. I think we were a little unlucky that we came in after they played Mississippi Valley State, in which I am sure they felt like was a poor performance. Sometimes coaches do a lot better coaching after their team doesn't play well."

"I hope our guys learned some things from the way that BYU played the game tonight, because we have to play more like that. We were spectators tonight. They were defending us and making our shots tougher than we were making their shots."