BYU vs. San Francisco Postgame Notes

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PLAYER NOTES

Nick Emery's first 3-pointer extended his streak of hitting at least one 3 in 27 straight games. He's just one game behind Jimmer Fredette's BYU record of 28 straight. Emery wound up going 4-of-6 from beyond the arc and passed Andy Toolson for 10th all-time in program history with 143 career 3s.

With 18 points at halftime, Emery was two points shy of his career high for a half, which he set with 20 points on Nov. 26 against Utah Valley.

Emery had an early steal to give him at least one steal in 14 straight games and in 17 of 18 games on the season.

Eric Mika had 31 points for a new career high. He has scored in double figures every game this season. Mika's dunk with 10:21 left in the game pushed him to 21 points for his ninth game this season with 20-plus points.

Mika made it a double-double with 12 rebounds. He's had a double-double in four straight, six of his last seven and 10 games overall this season.

Yoeli Childs swatted three Don shots and now has at least one block in 16 of 18 games this season and 30 total, which is tied for fifth most by a freshman in program history. He's had three-plus blocks in five games and eight games with multiple blocks.

Elijah Bryant scored 14 points for his third-straight game in double figures. He had 11 at Saint Mary's and 17 against Pacific.

TEAM NOTES

BYU shot 56 percent (29-of-52) from the field for its best shooting percentage of the season.

The Cougars scored 46 points in the paint, their most since they played USC on Dec. 3.

QUOTES

BYU coach Dave Rose

On the win and the Dons' efforts to cut the lead:

"I think the first thing is that I'm really glad that we won. I think it was a really competitive game and I think that Kyle's (Smith) team had a really good plan for us. Their effort was tremendous. We got off to a good start and as the game went on, their execution was tremendous. We tried to do some things with our personnel that we haven't done a lot of defensively, but they did a great job of exploiting matchups."

On Eric Mika's big second half:

"In the second half we were better at spacing things on offense. Early in the game he was a little frustrated with a lack of space, but in the second half we were able to get him some more. We were also able to hit him on the run instead of just straight up every time, and he did great on the offensive glass. I'm looking at his stat line and it was just a tremendous game for him."

On a quick turnaround for a road game:

"This is very similar to what we did right after Christmas. School is the big difference. We didn't handle that as well as we could have the first time. We're better prepared for San Diego than we were for LMU."

Nick Emery

On scoring well against San Francisco:

"Tonight was a good night. You have to take it one game at a time and San Francisco's defense let off of me in the first half and I was able to knock down some shots. I credit the guards for getting it to me. L.J. (Rose) had a great game. It may not show up in the stats, but he played hard."

On being the defensive "stopper":

"Everyone's been talking about how our defense needs to improve and I've been taking that personally. We need to get better and we are getting better. It's great to have great bigs behind me. It's a team effort, but I do take it personally."

Eric Mika

On a new career high in scoring:

"I was able to finish some shots that normally I've been trying to to draw fouls on. Watching film with the coaches, I've been working on that. My guys were finding me so I attribute it to them and our unselfish play on offense."

On allowing the Dons to hang around:

"I think it just comes down to hustling on a couple of plays. We get up and get a comfortable lead of 10 or 12, but instead of pushing on the gas pedal, we relax a little too much. That's something we've done in other games this season too. We want to do better at pushing the lead to 20 when we get up by 10."