Postgame notes: BYU 64 San Diego 48

The following notes and quotes are from BYU’s 68-48 victory over San Diego on Saturday evening at the Jenny Craig Pavilion in San Diego, Calif.

Series Results: BYU leads 20-6, including 7-4 in San Diego.

Attendance: 2,157

TEAM NOTES

First Half Fun

BYU held an opponent under 20 points in the first half for the first time since January 8, 2022 when the Cougars held Saint Mary’s to 16 points at the Marriott Center.

Owning the Paint

BYU improved to 9-3 on the season when outscoring the opponent in the paint as the Cougars outscored the Toreros 36-26 in the paint.

Twice as Nice

In two of its three West Coast Conference games, BYU has held its opponents under 50 points.

Bench Boys

BYU outscored the Toreros bench, 29-0, led by 13 from Rudi Williams.

PLAYERS NOTES

Cleaning the Glass

Fousseyni Traore pulled down two offensive rebounds, marking the 24th straight game the sophomore has recorded at least one offensive board.

How May We Assist You?

Jaxson Robinson had a career-high six assists on Saturday including a pair of alley-oops to Atiki Ally Atiki. BYU improved to 2-0 this season when the sophomore has 5 or more assists.

Atiki Ally (Oop) Atiki

Atiki Ally Atiki finished with a career-high 12 points, going 4-of-6 from the field and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe.

Big Fellas Converting at the Free Throw Line

Traore and Ally Atiki went a combined 7-of-8 from the free throw line.

The Return of Rudi

After not scoring in double figures in the past four games, Rudi Williams finished with INSERT points off the bench. It was the 12th time he has scored in double figures as a Coug and seventh time as a reserve.

SEASON HIGHS

Rebounds: Rudi Williams (6)
Steals: Spencer Johnson (2)

CAREER HIGHS

Points: Atiki Ally Atiki (12
Free Throws: Atiki Ally Atiki (4)
Assists: Jaxso Robinson (6), Atiki Ally Atiki (2)

QUOTES

Head Coach Mark Pope

What’s most gratifying about tonight’s win over San Diego?

“There are some ways that we make this game really hard for ourselves as we are just young. The patience is important for all of us. These guys are really, really trying and are getting better. San Diego is an incredibly offense team and they missed some shots but we didn’t give them anything easy. We were great in transition defense. We were really good talking ball screens. We were pretty good except for a short period in the second half in guarding our yard. We made some progress mentally in our transition game.”

“I think we are the only team in the league that had road games in three of its first four games. For a young team, that is really hard. For these guys to go 3-1, it wasn’t perfect but I am really proud of them. They have won eight of nine, that’s a huge accomplishment for this group.”

What did you tell the team to get them back on track?

“As you go through the season, the grind and gravity of the world just wants to pull you away. It wants to get you distracted. We shared a Kobe Bryant quote last night about all the things that want to pull you away from the purity of just trying to win as a team. I thought the guys responded well, it could have been easy for them to come into this game without their best energy. Gideon George got us started. He hasn’t always done that but he got us started on the defensive end with some great transition and gap defense. It sucked the rest of the team into that and I thought he was terrific.”

How happy were you keeping San Diego under 50 points?

“Really, really happy. Like I said, this is a scary, explosive team. San Francisco had them down by double digits at home and these guys just turned the tables really fast. When they get going, they really go. They can score at all five positions. All five of their starters can score at least 20 points on any given night.”

Spencer Johnson back in the starting lineup

“He has consistently been our best offensive and defensive player. He belongs there but we will continue to tweak this lineup throughout the season. We have so much learning and growing to do so we will keep making changes. Noah was fighting a little shoulder injury and I think he got through game with good health. Spencer really helped us tonight.”

Atiki’s progression over the past few weeks

“We have really challenged our two 5’s to start switching a lot and guarding guards more. I thought his effort there was really phenomenal. I thought he made simple decisions in the post. For the most part, he was rolling really hard and catching balls. We are using Atiki right now as a key point in our transitional offense. He has grown so much. We will see him continue to see him take big jumps because in some areas he has grown so much but there are just a couple areas that are holding him back.”

“His host family from Canada were at both of these games, so I know it was really important for him to play well. They mean so much to him and it was great for him to play the way he did in front of them.”

Atiki Ally Atiki Alley-Oops

“The aerial game is super important for us. Since Gavin Baxter went down for us last year, it was the first time that we didn’t have any aerial game. To get that back into the game is really important for us because it makes the scout different. When you have to account for that with a full body tag, it opens up so much and our guys have gotten a lot more comfortable throwing it to him which isn’t super complicated because as long as you throw it 10 feet within the hoop he will go and get it. He has been comfortable really catching it.”

Rudi Williams

What’s most gratifying about tonight’s win over San Diego?

“It feels good because right after Thursday’s loss Coach Pope said that there was no time for us to feel sorry for ourselves. We got of LA quick, got on the bus and got ready for the prep for this game. No one hung their head or felt sorry for themselves. We dropped one, oh well, and moved onto the next one. It feels good.”

Defensive performance

“It was knowing the scout. They have a lot of versatile players, their big man puts the ball on the deck a lot. We just paid attention to the scout. Shoutout to Coach Fueger, this was his scout and he did a great job getting us ready.”

More flow on offense

“After the LMU game, we watched film on how stagnant and easy we were to guard. Coach Pope just tweaked some stuff and I feel like it made the difference.”

What happened during 20-2 run

“It was a lot of stops. We chart kills (three stops in a row) and we got four in a row in the first half. That lead to the run.”