BYU vs. UTSA postgame notes and quotes

Player Notes

• Agustin Ambrosino scored back-to-back 3-pointers at 9:55 and 9:25 in the first half to put BYU up 29-17. Ambrosino finished with a career-high 6 points.
• Tyler Haws’s points moved into double digits (11) with a 3-pointer at the 5:46 mark of the first half. Haws finished the half with 13 points to lead all players.
• Raul Delgado scored the first points of his BYU career with 1:54 left to play in the first half to put BYU up 46-23.
• Brandon Davies entered double digit scoring (10) with a free-throw at the 17:32 mark of the second half.
• Brandon Davies scored the first 8 points for BYU in the second half. Brock Zylstra broke the streak with a basket at the 13:05 mark to put the Cougars up 58-38.
• Craig Cusick finished with a season-high 5 assists.
• Josh Sharp recorded BYU’s first block of the game, resulting in BYU’s first dunk of the game from Brandon Davies at the 10:42 mark to put BYU up 60-45. Sharp finished with a career-high 8 points and 6 rebounds.
• Brandon Davies recorded his first double-double of the season, 14th of the season, with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Davies also finished with 2 charges to add to his career total of 36. 
• Tyler Haws finished with 20 points for his fifth-straight 20-plus performance this season. He is now tied with Danny Ainge, Kresimir Cosic and Michael Smith with five-straight 20-plus point performances to start a season, and trails only Devin Durrant who had seven straight.  
• Brandon Davies went 8 for 8 from the charity stripe against UTSA for his most free-throw attempts without a miss in his career. 

Team Notes

• Dave Rose started Brandon Davies, Tyler Haws, Matt Carlino, Josh Sharp and Brock Zylstra tonight for the fifth-straight game.
• BYU finished the first half with 24 rebounds to UTSA’s 10. The Cougars also had 12 assists.
• The 24 rebounds for BYU are the most in a half this season. The previous most in a first half was 19 against Georgia State, and the previous most for any half was 23 against Tennessee State (second half) and Florida State (second half).  
• BYU’s 55.9 percent field-goal percentage is the second-best in a half this season. The best field goal percentage in the first half this season was 58.1 percent against Georgia State. The Cougars have now shot 50 percent or better in four halves this season.
• All 11 players who played in the first half also recorded at least two points.
• Between 12:44 and 10:42 in the second half, UTSA went on a 7-0 run to cut BYU’s lead to 15 points (60-45). The run was halted by a Brandon Davies dunk.
• The Cougars led UTSA 12-2 on fast break points and 15-9 on points off turnovers. BYU’s bench outscored the Roadrunner bench 24-6.
• Every player that saw minutes in the game scored at least one point.

Game Trends

• BYU held UTSA from scoring a basket until the 17:35 mark of the first half when they got a basket to tie the score at 2-2
• Between 18:05 and 11:35 in the first half, Tyler Haws didn’t miss from the field going 4 of 4. At 11:35 he missed but on the next possession he scored to put BYU up 18-13.
• Between 10:47 and 9:34 in the first half, BYU went on an 8-0 run to go up 26-15.
• BYU’s largest lead of the first half was 23 points with 1:54 to play up 46-23.
• Between 3:48 and 1:54 in the first half BYU went on a 6-0 run to go up 46-23.
• Between 4:18 and 3:04 in the second half BYU went on a 7-0 run to extend its lead to 21 points at 78-58. 
• BYU's largest lead of the second half was 21, reached twice, when the Cougars led 78-57 and 80-59.

Postgame Quotes

BYU head coach Dave Rose
“I thought we did a lot of things really well tonight. We shot the ball really well, shot free throws really well, rebounded the ball really well and competed really well. UTSA runs a lot of interesting action and it’s hard to guard. You have to have your rules down and be pretty sound in how you execute defensively, and I thought our group of guys executed that well for us. All in all I’m really pleased with the win. It’s a good way to bounce back from a tough weekend and we’re looking forward to the game on Saturday.”

“Craig was really steady tonight and I thought he managed the game really well. In practice the past couple of days Craig has been the guy who showed he really had those defensive concepts down, so we played him a lot tonight and he really helped us.”

“Josh is a guy we can count on to be in the right place at the right time. He makes timely plays. He had a play tonight where he came from the backside and got the block and that led to a transition bucket for us and that’s what we can count on from Josh.”

Brandon Davies
“I just tried to not pick up dumb fouls, so as long as I’m thinking about it I’ll get better at it as the season goes on.”

“We need to work on being big and staying straight up. We play physical and sometimes you’re going to draw a couple fouls. That’s just the way we like to play, but we just need to be a bit smarter.”

“It feels great to get the losing taste out of our mouths. We’re a winning program and it’s nice to get back on track. Coach really challenged us to put together consecutive stops and I think we did that tonight.”

Tyler Haws
“Our focus is always the same, we’re trying to play on attack. I feel like when we play good defense and get a few stops, that’s when we play really well. We get out in transition and that’s when we start to have those long runs.”

“You’ve got to give UTSA a lot of credit. We knew they were going to be physical and aggressive on the defensive end.”