Notes & Quotes: Georgia State

Player Notes

Matt Carlino tied his career-high when he record his fourth steal at the 11:49 mark in the first half. Carlino finished with 4 steals.
Tyler Haws tied his career-high with 4 3-pointers, the last coming at the 15:00 mark in the second half. Haws finished 4 of 6 from behind the arc. He also pulled down a season-high 7 rebounds.
Josh Sharp pulled down a season-high 4 rebounds in BYU’s win.
Nate Austin tied his career high for blocks with 2 against the Panthers. It marked his second-consecutive game with 2 blocks.
Tyler Haws finished with 22 points tonight (just two shy of his career high) and tallied 22 points against Tennessee State in the opener. It’s the first time in his career he’s scored 20-plus points in back-to-back games. His freshman year he tallied 20-plus points on 4 different occasions but never back-to-back.
Brandon Davies finished with 28 points to lead all players. Tyler Haws (22 points) and Matt Carlino (11 points) were the other double-digit scorers for BYU.

Team Notes

Dave Rose started Brandon Davies, Tyler Haws, Matt Carlino, Josh Sharp and Brock Zylstra against Georgia State tonight for the second-straight game.
The Cougars were 100 percent from the 3-point line (5 for 5) through the first 10:60 of the game.
Dunks tonight came from Nate Austin and Josh Sharp.
The Cougars finished the first half with 14 assists, 5 blocks and 7 steals.
Two BYU players finished the game with 20-plus points (Davies 28, Haws 22) for the first time since BYU’s game against Portland on Feb. 25, 2012.
Tonight the Cougars shot 58.1 percent in the first half. The percentage is the team’s best shooting in a half since the secnd half against San Diego in the WCC tourney on 3/2/12 when they shot 60.0 percent and the best shooting in a first half since BYU’s game against Santa Clara on 2/18/12 when they shot 59.1 percent.
The Cougars finished with 21 assists tonight and had 20 against Tennessee State. It’s the first time BYU has finished with 20-plus assists in consecutive games since 1/7/12 vs. USF (27) and 1/14/12 vs. Santa Clara (21).
BYU finished with 21 assists, 6 blocks and 12 steals.

Game Trends

The first points of the game for BYU came off back-to-back 3-pointers from Tyler Haws
Between 12:06 and 11:49, Matt Carlino tallied back-to-back steals that led to layups to put the Cougars up 29-2.
BYU went on a 31-2 run through the first 9:29 of the game.
The Panthers scored their first basket at 15:42 and second at 10:07 to put the score at 31-4.
Unanswered runs for BYU in the first half were between tipoff and the 16:05 mark when they went up 15-0, and between 15:10 and 10:07 when they scored 16 straight to go up 31-2.
The Cougar starters scored the first 31 points, going 13 for 16 from the field.
BYU’s largest lead of the first half was 29 points, reached three different times at 31-2, 35-6 and 37-8.
Between 5:23 and 3:03 in the second half BYU went on an 8-0 run to put them up 73-54.
BYU’s largest lead of the second half was 22 points, reached at three different times, at 73-51, 78-56 and 80-58.

BYU head coach Dave Rose

“I’m really proud of our team. The guys were really good in their preparation. We came out and we guarded really well. We obviously made a majority of our shots to start the game. I think it surprised all of us that the score was what it was early. I was really proud of how our guys took the challenge to attack this team. They did it on both ends of the court.”

“The way they play they are trying to turn you over. That’s what they do. They got 13 steals tonight and that’s about the average for their team over the last couple years. Coach Hunter tries to get plays to turn guys over and we turned it over quite a few times because of the pressure they put on us.”

“I thought our shot selection was good, but we went too many possessions without getting the ball inside like we like to. Brandon did a good job in there. We have a lot of things to work on, but I’m really impressed with how we prepared and came back after a good win the other night.”

What does it mean to you to be in this tournament?

“I just feel really privileged that they would allow us to play in this tournament. It’s a really prestigious tournament with great history. It gives our players a chance to go clear across the country and back east to play. I couldn’t be happier for our guys and for our staff. These were two really tough games and now we’ve got a real challenge. We’ll be playing great teams and a long way from home. We have to deal with traveling and time change and those are all things that are great learning experiences for the team. With a new group we’ll see how we do. I think obviously the cause for the tournament is really special to me and to my family and I hope we can continue to raise funds and bring awareness and someday we’ll have a cure for this thing.”

BYU Player Quotes

Brandon Davies

“We were playing great. Shots were falling and we were sharing the ball. It’s exactly what we wanted to do.”

“We had a lot on our mind with this team. We had a picture perfect scouting report. There were a couple things we could have done better, but we came out and executed our game plan.”

Tyler Haws

“I think we were sharing the ball really well. We were just trying to find the open guy and we were playing on attack. That was our game plan heading into the game. I thought our guys did that really well at the beginning and then we kind of relaxed. But we were able to get going in the second half again and finish it off.”

Georgia State head coach Ron Hunter

“The start killed us. One of the reasons we wanted to play here and we wanted to play at Duke was we wanted to show our young guys what it’s about. I thought that BYU was ready to go early. We were shell-shocked and had to settle down. Once we settled down I thought we were pretty good, I thought we were able to play with them.”

You’ve played BYU and Duke, can you compare the two teams?

“Two veteran teams. I think BYU shoots the ball better than Duke to be honest with you, but both are two tough places to play at."