BYU vs. UTEP: Games Notes & Quotes

BYU vs. UTEP

January 9, 2010

Don Haskins Center (El Paso, Texas)

Player Notes

— Tyler Haws earned his second double-double of the season, finishing with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Haws shot 5-of-9 from the field and 9-of-10 from the free throw line and added 2 assists and 1 steal.

— Haws’ point and rebound marks both tie career highs for the freshman.

— Jonathan Tavernari had a season-high 19 points (7-of-12, 3-of-6 from three), 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal.

— Michael Loyd, Jr., earned his first career start. Loyd had 7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal.

— Brandon Davies had a big second half for his fourth game in double-digits this year. Davies tied his career high with 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

— Jackson Emery tied his career-high 9 assists, adding 8 points and 4 steals.

Team Notes

— The Cougars have scored at least 70 points in 10-straight games and in 15 of 17 games this season.

— BYU has also scored 80 or more in 11 of 17 games, including 6 of the last 7 games.

— BYU has won 11-straight games. The winning streak is the longest since the 1992-93 season when the Cougars won 13 in a row from 1/4 to 2/15/93.

— Improving to 16-1, the last time the Cougars had a better record through their first 17 games was the 1987-88 season when BYU began its season 17-0.

— The last time BYU won at UTEP was 2/28/98, a 76-75 triple-overtime win. The Cougars lead the all-time series 40-25 and are 16-14 in El Paso.

— The game is the ninth this season where the Cougars have shot over .500, finishing with a .549 percentage (28-of-51).

Record Watch

— BYU’s 15 nonconference wins (16-1 overall) this season is the second-most in program history, trailing only the 1929-30 squad which went 17-1. It is only the fourth season in BYU history the Cougars have won 14 or more nonconference games: 1929-30 (17-1), 1965-66 (14-1), 1928-29 (14-4).

— With 19 points versus UTEP, Jonathan Tavernari passed Joe Nelson for 17th on the BYU all-time scoring list. Tavernari has 1,333 career points and is 5 points from passing Marty Haws for 16th all-time.

— With 1 steal tonight, Jonathan Tavernari passes Russell Larson for 5th on the BYU all-time steals list. Tavernari has 132 career steals and is 7 steals from passing Nate Call for 4th all-time.

Game Trends

— Brandon Davies scored six-straight points with just under six minutes left in the second half. Up 64-62, Davies hit two free throws and two layups to push the lead to 70-62.

— UTEP guard Randy Culpepper was held to just 10 points on 2-of-15 shooting after coming into the game with an 18.2 ppg average.

BYU head coach Dave Rose

"There was a great atmosphere here. We had to overcome a lot of things. This team's really talented and will win a lot of games. This was not only a good win tonight, but down the road I think it'll turn out to be a good win."

"We've played 16 games with Jimmer and in game 17 we don't have him. We would have liked to have him to settle us down but Mike [Loyd] did a great job and figured it out."

"Tyler [Haws] hit big baskets early in the game. It was a great team win. You turn it over 22 times and still find a way to win the game, it says a lot about your determination and competitiveness."

"You don't really know where the scoring is going to come from. You look at Tyler and Brandon, they were a combined 10-for-15 with 34 points. That is a great performance from young guys stepping up and being oblivious to how difficult it really is."