Notes and Quotes: Tennessee State

Player Notes

Josh Sharp got his first career start against the Tigers
BYU’s first offensive rebound came from Nate Austin at 10:27, his put-back scored his first points and pulled BYU within one at 18-17 – Austin finished with four points.
Matt Carlino recorded four assists in the first nine minutes of play for BYU – he finished with 10 assists, just one shy of his career high. He also added nine points, five rebounds and a steal.
Agustin Ambrosino checked in with 4:28 left in the first half and 10 seconds later, hit a 3-pointer, his first points as a Cougar. It was the first 3-pointer for the team since the 17:10 mark and broke a 25-all tie.
Tyler Haws's school record free-throw streak came to an end tonight. He had made 50 consecutive free throws, two of which came tonight with 3:21 to play in the first half. The streak ended when he missed with 5:58 to play in the second half.
Brandon Davies set a new career high in blocks tonight with four.
Josh Sharp set a new career high in blocks tonight with two and a career high in points with seven.
Tyler Haws finished with 22 points (7-of-15 from the field) to lead all players, just two points shy of tying his career high. Brandon Davies and Brock Zylstra also finished in double-digit points with 16 and 11, respectively.

Team Notes

Dave Rose started Brandon Davies, Tyler Haws, Matt Carlino, Josh Sharp and Brock Zylstra against Tennessee State.
Tonight’s attendance was 16,283. Attendance for last season’s home opener against BYU-Hawaii was 13,435. The Cougars beat the Seasiders 73-52.
Dunks tonight came from Brandon Davies (61st career), Tyler Haws (3rd career) and Josh Sharp (2nd career).
Brock Zylstra tallied BYU’s first 3-point play of the game with 12:14 to play in the second half to give the Cougars their first double-digit lead at 49-38.
Last season Brandon Davies took 31 charges. Picking up where he left off, he took three against the Tigers. Teammates Nate Austin and Brock Zylstra each took one.
Last year BYU’s average of 17.1 assists per game was ranked 6th in the country. Tonight they totaled 20 dimes on 30 made baskets.
BYU led in points in the paint, 40-18, and in fastbreak points, 18-2.
Tennessee State’s Robert Covington was held to just nine points, going 2-for-12 from the field, in the game by BYU’s defense. Covington averaged 17.8 ppg last season.
BYU improved to 5-3 in season openers and 7-1 in home openers under Dave Rose.

Game Trends

The Cougars kicked off action in the first half with three dunks between the 18:18 and 15:58 marks in the first half.
BYU put together a 9-0 run in the first half between 5:37 and 2:27 to put them up 32-25.
BYU’s largest lead of the first half came with 2:51 left, up by seven at 32-25.
The Cougars outscored the Tigers 11-5 in the last 6:57 of the first half while also forcing five turnovers.
BYU’s largest lead of the second half came with 2:07 left, up by 19 at 79-60.

Quotes
BYU head coach Dave Rose

“I thought it was a really hard-fought game. Coach Williams and his team are going to win a lot of games. I’m really impressed. They’re tough, they play hard and they compete together. This was a really good win for our team and I think it will prove to be a great one before the season’s over. I’m happy with our guys. I thought we did a lot of things really well.”

On Brandon Davies

“They had a really good game plan against Brandon. The difference was when we challenged him in the second half to catch the ball deeper in the paint. He was pushed out too far in the first half and then the spacing was bad. They could bring two guys to guard Brandon and still guard our perimeter guys. If he can catch that ball deep in the paint, and if guys want to come and help, then we’re going to get our guys space on the outside. I think that Brandon took the challenge at half time.

On Tyler Haws

“I thought Tyler was great tonight. You could just see him as the game went on get more and more confident. He got a little tired in the second half. It was a really physical game and he took a couple shots, but finished the game real well. We’ll give him a little rest and then get ready for Tuesday night.”

Player Quotes

Tyler Haws

“I felt great tonight. It was a fun atmosphere and we had a great crowd. That was a good team over there, very talented. They fought to the very end, so I enjoyed being out there.”

“Overall, I feel really good about that win. That’s a great team. They are going to do some big things this year and beat some good teams. For a season opener I feel good with the way our guys played and responded to the other team’s toughness and quickness.”

Josh Sharp

“We were aggressive on offense, so we were able to get them into foul trouble. It’s really about following the scouting report the coaches put together for us and executing it.”

On his dunk:

“It always feels good to dunk. You have a lot of adrenaline at the beginning of a game and it’s good just to get into a rhythm and we were going fast, so it just felt good.”

Tennessee State head coach Travis Williams

“Overall, I think we could have defended better. We gave too much up in the paint, as you can tell from the stats. If we could have played with the same tenacity we played with at the end of the game, it may have been a different story. We need to make our shots. We only shot 34 percent from the field. We need to make our shots.”