BYU knocked out of WCC tournament after loss to San Diego

BYU vs. San Diego Box Score

LAS VEGAS – The BYU men’s basketball team was knocked out of the West Coast Conference tournament after losing to San Diego 80-57 Saturday night in Orleans Arena.

"First off, congratulations to San Diego," BYU head coach Dave Rose said. "They are a very well put together group and as a spectator, it is fun to watch. They played terrific and deserved to win."

Yoeli Childs led the team with 14 points and six rebounds while Connor Harding tallied 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting while grabbing four rebounds. TJ Haws added 10 points, three assists and two steals.

In the first four minutes of the game, the Toreros jumped to a 13-0 lead before Childs went a 6-0 run to put the Cougars on the board, but San Diego continued to control the game as the lead extended to 26-10 with 7:44 remaining in the first half.

In the final four minutes of the first half, BYU only scored from the charity stripe as the Toreros went into the locker room with a 46-19 lead after shooting 53.3 percent from the field compared to the Cougars’ 25.0 percent.

Haws and Childs scored on the first two possessions of the second half to cut into the deficit, 46-23.

With nearly 10 minutes remaining Zac Seljaas hit the first trey of the game for the Cougars and was followed by a jumper by Kolby Lee and a free throw from Haws as San Diego held a 69-31 lead.

In the final moments of the game Harding and Gavin Baxter scored on multiple possessions to bring down the deficit.

On the game, BYU shot 31.0 percent from the field, 5.9 percent from 3 and 69.0 percent from the free throw line. San Diego recorded 49.0 percent from the field, 41.2 percent from beyond the arc and 88.5 percent from the charity stripe.

Postgame Quotes

Luke Worthington
"We did not get off to the start we wanted. They were on track and it stayed that way for a long time. We've had our fair share of comebacks from large deficits this season, but it got to the point where it was just too much to overcome tonight. Credit to San Diego and how they played tonight."

Dave Rose
"First off, congratulations to San Diego. They are a very well put together group and as a spectator, it is fun to watch. They played terrific and deserved to win."

"We got off to a tough start on both sides. The first shots we found were all 3-point shots, but we all missed. We didn't score and we got our head down. Tonight, they were a lot better than we were. We practiced well yesterday, but it is hard to execute your game plan when you are a shooting team and you shoot the percentage we did tonight."