BYU at Virginia Tech: Game Notes and Quotes

• Brandon Davies scored 12 points in the first half to extend his streak of games in double figures to 11 games. Davies finished with 17 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block and 1 steal.
• Noah Hartsock scored 22 points, including 16 in the second half. The senior made 7 of 12 from the field, 7 of 8 free throws and added 7 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals and 1 assist. He has now scored in double figures in 22 of 23 games this year and had at least 20 points in 9 games.
• Matt Carlino struggled to find the basket (3 of 15) but hit back-to-back buckets down the stretch in the second half, including a 3-pointer. He finished with 7 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.
• Charles Abouo came close to a double-double, scoring 9 points and picked up 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal.

• Head coach Dave Rose went with the starting lineup of Matt Carlino, Brock Zylstra, Charles Abouo, Noah Hartsock and Brandon Davies.
• BYU’s defense held Virginia Tech to just 8 of 31 shooting (25.8 percent) in the first half and forced 9 turnovers in the first period and 15 for the game.
• The Cougars had just 7 turnovers in the game to tie a season low and outscored the Hokies 23-6 off turnovers.
• BYU had two players in double figures, Noah Hartsock and Brandon Davies. Hartsock scored 22 points and Davies finished with 17 points and the two went a combined 18 of 20 from the charity stripe. BYU finished 21 of 24 (87.5 percent) from the free throw line.
• With the 70-68 victory, BYU picked up its first true road win against an ACC opponent in school history.

• BYU held Virginia Tech scoreless for the first 6:55, holding them to 0 for 14 shooting. Meanwhile BYU shot just 3 of 11 and led 6-0.
• Virginia Tech made its first field goal at the 10:17 mark in the first half and trailed the Cougars 13-3 at that point.
• After a 7-0 run from the Hokies, BYU’s lead was cut to 15-12 and Virginia Tech made back-to-back treys towards the end of the half to trail the Cougars just 29-25 at the half.
• Virginia Tech took its first lead of the game with 16:10 remaining with a made free throw at 33-32.
• BYU used a 11-0 run retake the lead at 50-45 with 8:29 left in the game.
• The Cougars and Hokies traded 3-point makes on back-to-back posessions to tie the score at 62-62 with 2:04 left in the game.
• Zylstra hit a 3-pointer, his first basket of the night with 27 seconds left to give BYU a 69-66 lead. Anson Winder made a free throw and despite a Hokies' bucket and a BYU turnover with 9.8 seconds left, the Cougars held on for the 70-68 victory.

BYU head coach Dave Rose

“It was a grind of a game. I think the most important thing for our players, win or lose in this game, was to really believe we could be more competitive and be a tougher group of guys that are resilient. When it comes down to when we are challenged, we can respond. When we aren’t playing well we can respond and when we aren’t scoring the ball we can still guard hard. I think we have made some progress in that over the last two or three days.”

“Tonight should give us a lot of confidence in our ability to be able to rely on each other and trust each other as we continue to try and be more competitive.”

“You have to find ways to win games. Noah hit a huge three around the two-minute mark and then Brock hit a big three. We had five guys hit one three tonight. That is good for us but we want to shoot a better percentage obviously. (Virginia Tech) is one of the best in the country at defending the three-point line. They close so hard on you and are so quick and so long.”

“The key for us tonight was seven turnovers. You take those seven turnovers and Virginia Tech doesn’t get to score off them. We just felt if we could get shots and continually put pressure on them since this is a team where they are very content to stay around the 60 point mark. We felt if we could get shots and not turn it over we could get to 65 or 70 and 70 won it tonight.”

“You challenge your guys to go and compete. When things aren’t going well right now we still have to defend and this thing will turn. And when it turns we all have to be on the same page and just try to do everything we can do to win.”

“If we get an open shot, in a game like today, you have to take that shot. We need to make them obviously and we didn’t make a lot of them. But that is the call to the players that this game, this position, how (Virginia Tech) guards, when you get an open shot you have to take it.”