BYU vs. BYU-Hawaii: Game Notes & Quotes

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Player Notes

• Brandon Davies scored the first 6 points of the night on 3 of 3 shooting. He got the first points of the game at the 18:24 mark with a turn around hook shot. Davies finished the game with a career-high 25 points on 10 of 13 shooiting.
• Davies opened the game 6 of 6 from the field and drained both free throw attempts to lead all scorers with 14 points with over 12 minutes left in the first half.
• Craig Cusick hit the his first 3-pointer of his career with 3:33 left in the first half. Cusick finished with a career-high 6 points.
• Davies continued to be the spark for BYU, starting the second half 3 of 3 from the field and scored the first 6 points in both halves of play.
• The BYU big men tandem of Noah Hartsock and Davies got the job done. Hartsock had 14 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals. Davies had 25 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and 1 steal.

Team Notes

• Head coach Dave Rose started Brandon Davies, Charles Abouo, Brock Zylstra, Stephen Rogers and Noah Hartsock for the second game of the 2011-12 season.
• BYU had runs of 13-0, 10-0 and 7-0 in the first half. The Cougars took a 40-17 lead into the break.
• After only Charles Abouo hit three pointers against Utah State, 4 different Cougars made baskets from behind the arc. Brock Zylstra, Craig Cusick, Damarcus Harrison and Stephen Rogers each hit treys.
• The Cougars held their opponent to less than 20 points (17) in the first half for the first time since holding Mississippi Valley State to 10 points last season at the Marriott Center.
• Eight different Cougars got on the scoreboard. Two scored in double figures. Davies led the way with 25 points and Hartsock added 14 of his own.

Game Trends

• After missing the first two shots of the game BYU went on to make the next four in a row as part of a 13-0 run to open the first 6 minutes of the game. Davies scored 8 points on 4 of 4 shooting, Abouo scored 2 points and Zylstra drained a 3-pointer during the run.
• BYU held the Seasiders scoreless for the first 5:57 of the game before Bracken Funk knocked in a three pointer to get BYU-Hawaii on the board.
• After BYU-Hawaii got their first points of the night, the Cougars went on another run, this time of 10-0 to push the score to 23-3 just over 10 minutes remaining in the first half.
• After Davies scored the first 2 points of the second half BYU went cold, missing the next 4 shots. The Cougars then made their next three, with Davies going 2 of 2 and Hartsock adding another.

Head coach Dave Rose
"I was really pleased with how we came out and started the game. I thought that defensively we were aggressive not only individually — each guy was playing with energy — but as a team I thought we helped pretty well. We contested shots, we were active and that’s really pleasing to a staff. When you have a group of new guys and you get beat, you wonder how they're going to respond. I really thought that the first 15 minutes of the game were very, very good for us. Hopefully we can build on that."

"I just tried to make sure I was ready today and started off strong. There is definitely a lot I can improve on offensively and defensively. Shots were falling and my teammates were finding me. I think we played really well as a team and we were able to get open shots."

"It felt good. I think it got everyone fired up. Everyone is trying to get over our first loss and I felt like that was a good way to do it and the only way to do it to, go out there and play strong for your next game. Take it one game at a time."

"We kind of had some let downs defensively. That’s one of the things we need to work on. We didn’t play as well the second half as we did the first and a lot of that’s on us, just our aggressiveness, and we’ll definitely get better as the season goes on."

"It was our first game against a regular team. I thought BYU came out and did a great job defensively. I don’t know that we were ready. We missed a couple early shots and then started taking bad ones. The second half I think our guys came together. After that start, it’s tough."

"[BYU] did a great job and took us out of it. I thought we made some little runs but we didn’t get the consistency. I think sometimes that happens your first game. You have to learn to keep moving the ball and taking the ball."