BYU vs. Colorado Postgame Notes

BYU vs. Colorado Recap

BYU vs. Colorado Facebook Photo Gallery

BYU vs. Colorado Box Score

PLAYER NOTES

TJ Haws set a career high with four 3-pointers. It marked his sixth game this season with multiple 3s, and his fourth game with three or more.

Nick Emery had 22 points for his second game this season with 20 or more points. Emery now has 13 20-plus games in his career.

Eric Mika scored 17 points to continue his run of double-digit scoring in every game this season.

Yoeli Childs had 11 points and 12 rebounds for his first career double-double.

Steven Beo set career highs in minutes (21), points (3), field goals (1), rebounds (4), assists (2) and steals (3).

Mika knocked down 11-of-13 free throws for his second straight game with 10-plus makes from the free-throw line and third such game this season.

Mika had a new career best with six assists. His previous high was four, which he had in the Cougars' last game against Weber State.

Childs blocked a shot to give himself at least one block in nine of 10 games. Mika's three blocks gave him at least one block in eight of 10 games.

TEAM NOTES

BYU outrebounded Colorado 46-31, including a 13-7 advantage on the offensive glass.

Despite six lead changes, the Cougars led for more than 35 of the games' 40 minutes.

BYU shot a season-best 47 percent (9-of-19) from 3-point range.,

The Cougars led 40-38 at halftime, and improved to 7-1 this season when leading at the half.

QUOTES

BYU head coach Dave Rose

"What a great night. I'm happy for our guys. I really felt like tonight was one of the best all-around performances for this group. Not every guy had a great game as far as numbers are concerned, but every guy gave supreme effort.

"I like the way it felt. I like the way the bench felt. The interaction among the guys was what we've wanted to see."

On the defensive improvement

"The biggest thing for us was to be really active and make plays on the ball. They're a driving team and they space the floor really well. The main thing was to control the drive. As the game went on, we got better at it. We took a big step forward on defense."

On Steven Beo's minutes

"With injury situations, we've been playing some guys too many minutes. We needed to find another guy. Steven has played well in practice. I think he would have emerged sooner, but he hurt his thumb in practice and that set him back. He proved tonight that there's a lot he can do to help our team and our guard line.

"That 3 he made was really, really big. The guys who had been in the game were having a tough stretch, and we needed that shot to lift us."

On the good 3-point shooting

"The confidence in 3-point shooting has come in the last five or six days. A lot of these young guys are starting to figure out a lot of things about how this works. It was nice to see some shots go in, not only for the coaches, but especially for the players."

TJ Haws

"It feels great. We had a good vibe in the locker room. It’s a good confidence builder for us. We’re going to keep getting better and get on to Illinois next week.It feels great"

On the defensive effort

"I think we’re a good defensive team and what it takes is a defensive mentality. We’re trying to change that before every game—coming in each game with a tough defensive mindset. I think we came out tough tonight and we made hustle plays. I thought our defense was much better tonight.

"It was defensive effort tonight. They have great players and great offensive threats. When we’re in the gaps and helping each other it’s really hard to score like that. When we were in the gaps I thought we had a great team defensive effort."

Steven Beo

"It felt good being out there with the guys hustling and making plays. It was a big win and it was fun to be out there with them."

On his most minutes played this season

"I was just doing what the coaches told us. We want this defensive mindset so every guy goes out there and gives it their all. Once we find that group that can win, we’re going to stick with it. I guess he thought I was part of that group tonight.

"I think we all go in wanting to win. We don’t go in thinking how much we're going to play or if we are going to get in. We're going in with the one purpose—to win. And tonight I got the opportunity to go in."

Colorado head coach Tad Boyle

On slowing the pace down

"Well, we didn’t slow them down very well. They scored 40 points in the first half and 39 points in the second, so whatever we told them wasn’t very good. We didn’t execute well enough. BYU is a good team. We knew that coming in, and we knew they had been struggling shooting the ball. Obviously, Colorado defense is what they needed to get going. We came out doubling Mika on the post, but we didn’t rotate and they got a dunk. The next time we didn’t rotate they got a 3-pointer and they were just off to the races. They are one of those teams where they see a shot go in and they start feeling it. Haws is a heck of a player, Emery is a heck of a player, and I thought we did a pretty good job on Mika for the most part, but he is a heck of a player as well.

On rebounding

"We got punked. There is no other way to put it. We just got punked on the boards by BYU and they are a good rebounding team. They are a better rebounding team than us and they kicked our tail on the boards. There is no other way to say it. Thirteen offensive rebounds equal the ball game."

On the defensive effort

"We started standing around, motionless. It was good enough to get us back in the game, but at those critical times, we started standing a lot. We might have gotten tired. I probably should have subbed a little bit more. But, we didn’t execute well enough down the stretch, neither offensively or defensively."