BYU vs. Gonzaga Postgame Notes and Quotes

BYU vs. Gonzaga Box Score

BYU vs. Gonzaga Game Recap

PLAYER NOTES

Nick Emery hit 3 3s for his 20th game with multiple makes from behind the arc and 16th game with at least 3 treys, good for 6th all-time in a season at BYU. He also notched double figures with 11 points for the 26th time during his freshman season, 2nd-most by a BYU freshman.

Kyle Collinsworth recorded his 34th career double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds, tying Alan Taylor for 3rd-most in school history. He also played in his 134th career game, tied with Noah Hartsock for 6th-most at BYU. He added 8 assists and 2 steals. Collinsworth hit 2 3-pointers in the game, his first game with multiple triples since a 2 against Utah on Dec. 2 this season and just the 4th time in his career.

Nate Austin added on to his career record with his 147th game played at BYU. He also became the school’s career record holder with 410 fouls after getting 2 in the game to break a tie with Russell Larson. He finished the game with 6 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal.

With 18 points, Chase Fischer joined the 1,000 point club (1,010) at BYU after just two years of playing. He becomes the 48th player to score 1,000 points at BYU. He reached the mark in his 65th game, the 7th-fastest player in BYU history. He made 3 treys for the 19th time this season and has now hit 1 in 20 consecutive games, 5th in a single-season at BYU. Fischer also had a sequence where he scored 6 straight points after just 1 field goal, making 2 free throws, a 3-pointer and another free throw after being fouled on the 3.

Zac Seljaas set a career high with 5 assists to go along with his 9 points.

TEAM NOTES

BYU started Kyle Collinsworth, Chase Fischer, Nick Emery, Kyle Davis and Corbin Kaufusi. The Cougars drop to 8-4 with that starting group.

Seniors Kyle Collinsworth, Chase Fischer and Nate Austin likely played their final games in the Marriott Center and were honored before the game.

BYU trailed at the half for the 13th time this season and fall to 5-8 when trailing at halftime.

BYU forced the Zags into 6 turnovers over a 5-minute span in the first half. BYU recorded 8 steals in the half and forced Gonzaga into 11 first-half turnovers.  

The Cougars finish the regular season 22-9, the 11th consecutive 20-win season under Dave Rose.  

BYU head coach Dave Rose

It was quite a game. Two teams that I thought were battling pretty hard. A lot on the line. I congratulate Mark Few, his staff and his team for another WCC championship. They’ve got a tremendous team and program. They’re on quite a roll right now. I feel for my guys. They fought hard. It wasn’t our best game, but we battled really hard.

Kyle got that second foul, and that kind of took the wind out of our sails early and then they went on that big run. Then we had to battle back the rest of the game, but defensively, they are really good. They protect the basket really well and they’re long on the perimeter, so it kind of speeds your shot up just a little bit.

On shots down the stretch:
The one on the out-of-bounds under is exactly what we wanted. We knew Chase would be draped and Nick could hit a three. The one coming off of transition, he had an opportunity to maybe drive that thing in there, but that was really difficult to know what was going to happen when you drive it in there, because there were a lot of fouls called and collisions not called. He got a clean look. I thought it was in.

Kyle Collinsworth

On last play:
I tried to reach for it. Just felt like I got grabbed a little bit. Couldn’t extend my arm to go get it, but it was a tough play. I’m sure it was a tough angle for a ref. Their job’s hard too just like our job is out there. Tough play at the end. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.

Takeaways from the game:
It’s tough, but there are positives from this. There are always positives. It makes us more hungry. When we play them again, we’re going to be more hungry. At this point, we have nothing to lose. It gives us that mindset—just go into the tournament and give it all we have.

Chase Fischer

Moving on:
It’s tough, obviously. Tough mood in the locker room, and tomorrow’s going to be tough, but we have everything in front of us. The WCC this year, the top three teams—everybody is beating everybody a little bit. Me, Kyle and Nate will regroup everybody next week. We’ve got a four-day tournament where we can make some noise and get back to the NCAA tournament. 

Were those the shots you wanted in the last 30 seconds?
We have confidence in everybody. If you’re on the floor, Coach Rose has confidence in you. That’s the way you play, win or lose. I’m confident in nick and I’m confident in Zac and in everyone on the floor. 

Gonzaga head coach Mark Few

"That was a heck of a game. I'm so proud of our guys. To be able to come into an environment like this, which is as good as it gets in college basketball, and not play perfect down the stretch, but to fight and we fought. We beat a really good team who was playing good. We had to make plays all the way to the last second, so I'm really proud of them."

"They're so dangerous at any point and any time and they're so explosive. No lead ever feels safe when you're playing them. We battled them on the glass which isn't easy in here."

"We needed this win. We've been in a lot of games like this and we haven't won. Every one of our losses has been similar to that where we led or were in control the whole game and then lost. I'm proud of our guys for that. This is as good as it gets in college basketball: this environment, this many people and that much passion and the Cougars play so hard here. It's a heck of an accomplishment."

"We didn't want to give up a three, leading by two and we just wanted to get our game plan down stick to the detail don't mess up any coverages and block out cause we knew they were going to go to the glass. That was a horrible decision whatever happened when we were taking it out, but we fought through. We didn't cave in after that."