Exhibition play begins Saturday against Seattle Pacific

PROVO, Utah – BYU basketball will host Seattle Pacific Saturday in the Marriott Center at 7 p.m. MDT in the first of two exhibitions for the Cougars. The game will be televised live on BYUtv and broadcast on the Cougar IMG Sports Network on BYUcougars.com, KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM and 1160 AM and BYU Radio Sirius XM 143.

Fans got their first look at the 2016-17 squad on Wednesday in the Cougar Tipoff. Freshman forward Yoeli Childs posted 21 points and 14 rebounds as the White team came back to defeat the Blue team 80-77. TJ Haws added 20 points and seven assists for the White team while Colby Leifson (24 points) and Steven Beo (20 points) led the Blue team.

The Cougars enter the 2016-17 season with seven returning lettermen and four players with starting experience, including senior Kyle Davis, junior Corbin Kaufusi and sophomores Nick Emery and Eric Mika. Last season BYU finished 26-11 overall and 13-5 in the West Coast Conference. The Cougars played in the postseason for an 11th-straight season, advancing to the semifinals of the NIT in Madison Square Garden.

Seattle Pacific, an NCAA Division II institution and a member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, is led by first-year head coach Grant Leep. The seven-year Falcons’ assistant inherits a program that has advanced to the postseason 12-consecutive seasons. Last season, Seattle Pacific finished 22-9 overall and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Falcons return five players with starting experience and senior center Joe Rasmussen is the team’s top returning scorer at 6.1 points per game.

BYU’s second exhibition will be against BYU-Hawaii on Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. MST in the Marriott Center. The game will be televised on BYUtv and broadcast on the Cougar IMG Sports Network on BYUcougars.com, KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM and 1160 AM and BYU Radio Sirius XM 143.