BYU vs. Utah State Postgame Notes

PLAYER NOTES

By halftime, Braiden Shaw had new career highs with eight points and four rebounds. He wound up with 10 points and five rebounds.

Yoeli Childs also set a new career high with nine points and added 12 rebounds. He made his first start BYU.

Eric Mika blocked a career-high four shots. It also marked the fifth time this season and 10th time in his career with at least two blocks.

L.J. Rose had six assists, marking his sixth-straight game with at least five assists.

Rose set BYU highs with 18 points and two 3-point field goals.

With 10 points, Nick Emery reached double figures for the sixth time in seven games this season.

TEAM NOTES

BYU finished the game with 23 offensive rebounds, tied for the third-best mark in program history. Its previous best this season was 14, which it had on Nov. 14 against Princeton.

The Cougars had a 20-10 advantage over the Aggies in second-chance points.

QUOTES

BYU coach Dave Rose

On the better defensive effort tonight

"I think the most impressive thing to me was how the guys responded as far as the energy that we played with. We got a hand on the first five or six missed shots that we had, and we sustained that for the full game, except for just a couple lapses at the end of the first half and the middle of the second. We had good energy, and contested things pretty well. Twenty-three offensive rebounds in a game where there are 56 missed shots is a pretty good number. With the group that is just learning how to go through this whole process, to see them respond to a really disappointing loss with this kind of effort is what our staff is most impressed with.

"Our guards were really having hard time shooing the ball, and we really relied on Eric, and L.J. hit a couple of really big shots which is really good to see. Braiden, as well. Braiden went 4-for-4 and 2-for-2 in just 14 minutes, and so there were a lot of good signs there.

"What we have lacked is consistency. We played well, won some games, and then we let some games get past us. And then we didn’t shoot the ball well. Hopefully we can still win games when we don’t shoot the ball well. This was a game we had to really grind out, and that is similar to what this league is going to be like. And it’s what all these in-state games are like. They are early games, but they feel like league games."

On team self-accountability after UVU loss

"I think that when we showed them the film and the plays and the 50-50 balls they missed, they saw that they were just waiting for things to happen instead of making them happen. That’s where I think they felt that they let everybody down. There are a lot of different ways to describe how we play, but the number-one thing is that we have always been the aggressor and we have always been on attack. Sometimes that causes some issues, but that was not the case the other night. But tonight we got back to playing how we like to play."

On L.J. Rose getting more comfortable each game

"L.J. is a very cerebral guy. He watches a lot of film, and he just tries to find his way. His actual strengths are different than a lot of the other guards on the team. I think tonight we really got to see a full game from him. The scouting reports seem to say that he is the one that others teams give the most space to and he busted out a couple 3s and got himself fouled late—and he is a really good free-throw shooter. So, he executed all that well. He is our leading defensive rebounder on the year. In the seven games we’ve played, I think he has 44 or 45 defensive rebounds. So, he does a lot of things for us that are a little different, but I think he can really use tonight as a confidence builder. He was a big part of why we won the game.

L.J. Rose

What it means to get that win after the last two games

"It meant a lot. We couldn’t wait to play—we embarrassed ourselves and the university on Saturday. We knew we had to bounce back. Guys were itching to play. We came out and had something to prove."

On the rebounding effort

"Coach said to play hungry. If you’re tired, we’ll sub someone in. It came down to trust. We had to trust the next guy and the next guy stepped up. Braiden Shaw played phenomenally. This is what we have to do this year."

On his shots falling tonight

"I told Terry (Nashif) and Lee (Cummard) before the game that I’ve been shooting terribly and eventually it’s going to fall. I just need to trust the process and keep on taking good shots. Everything else will work out."

Braiden Shaw

Offensive rebounds

"I think we came out with the mentality that we were going to play hard. When the boards went up, we all crashed and did our thing.

"I think the rebound margin made a big difference. I think I heard 23 offensive rebounds. That’s a big number."

On his three-straight tip-ins at the end of the first half

"You go and you go to the glass. You try to get the board. I can’t say much more than that. You go every single time and when they fall into your hands, you put them back in."

Eric Mika

On the mindset going in to tonight

"Our mindset was getting back to playing defense and focusing on it in our practices. Believe it or not, we worked on a lot of defensive stuff. Almost every drill was defensive. We made sure we came out hungry. We weren’t protecting something per say, but trying to prove something.

"Everyone who has watched us play, knows the team and knows the guys knows that we are a very capable team. We just have to have the right mindset. It’s 100 percent coming out with the right attitude and trying to prove something."

On the rebounding advantage

"We knew they had a lot of athletic dudes. If you execute on defense, you make them take tough shots, which they did. We had to finish it out. We had a lot of base come in. Braiden Shaw and Jamal Aytes came in to give us huge minutes, got huge rebounds."

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