BYU vs. Montana postgame notes and quotes

• Brandon Davies finished with his second double-double this season with 21 points and a season-high tying 10 rebounds. He added a season-high 17 free throw attempts, a career-high tying 6 assists, a season-high 4 steals and 2 blocks.
• Josh Sharp finished the game with a career-high 13 points and 8 rebounds, including 5 offensive boards.
• Also in double figures was Tyler Haws who finished with 18 points, ending his streak of six-straight 20-plus point games. The six-straight 20-point games is the second most by a BYU player to start a season. 
• Tyler Haws scored 8 of BYU’s first 16 points through the first 4 minutes. 
• Raul Delgado made the first 3-pointer of his career with 8:05 left to play in the first half to put BYU up 31-17. He finished with a career-high 5 points.
• Heading into halftime, Brandon Davies scored BYU’s last six points to give the Cougars a 42-31 lead. 
• Brandon Davies reached double figures (10) with 1:02 left in the first half, on a free throw to put BYU up 42-31.
• Tyler Haws’s points reached double digits (11) at the 18:38 mark of the second half on a jumper to put BYU up 46-31. 
• Josh Sharp tallied BYU’s first offensive rebound of the game in the second half after 20 seconds of play. 
• Josh Sharp’s points reached double digits (10) with 7:31 left in the game, on a jumper to put BYU up 65-48.

• Dave Rose started Brandon Davies, Tyler Haws, Craig Cusick, Josh Sharp and Brock Zylstra tonight for the first time this season. 
• Tonight’s two dunks came from Josh Sharp. 
• With BYU’s 42-31 halftime lead, the Cougars have now led at halftime in all of their games this season except against Florida State. 
• Against Montana, BYU shot 62.5 percent (15 for 24) the field in the first half for their best field goal percentage in a first half this season and their third time to shoot over 50 percent in the first half. The 62.5 percent is also the best field goal shooting percentage for BYU in a half since the second half against Weber State on Dec. 7, 2011 when the team shot 63.6 percent from the field. 
• BYU shot 60 percent (6 for 10) from the 3-point line in the first half for its best shooting in a half from behind the arc since the game against San Francisco on Feb. 16, 2012 when the team also shot 60 percent (6 for 10).
• The Cougars outscored Montana 32-16 in the paint and 26-7 off turnovers. 
• On the year, BYU is now 5-0 when it scores between 80-89 points and 4-0 when it shoots better than 50 percent from the field. 

• Between the 18:33 and 15:05 marks to start the game, BYU went on a 12-0 run to take a 14-2 lead. 
• BYU’s largest lead of the first half was 14 points when the Cougars were up 31-17 and 33-19. 
• Between 11:24 and 8:48 in the second half, BYU went on a 7-0 run to take a 60-45 lead. 
• The Cougars’ largest lead of the second half was 25 points when they were up 85-60 with 48 seconds left in the game.

Postgame Quotes
Head coach Dave Rose

“I thought we played well. I was really pleased with the start of the game. Defensively we got out to a great start and challenged every shot. Offensively, we had open shots, we hit them and got off to a nice lead. We probably could have shot free throws a bit better, but other than that I thought it was a pretty good game.”

 

“Brandon went into halftime without a foul and played 19 minutes. I think we made progress in a lot of areas. We played nine guys without a lot of minutes, but we tried to get all nine in double digits to build their experience. Montana is a tough team. They were very physical in how they defended in the post. They contested everything, but I think we got stronger as the game progressed.”
 

Brandon Davies

“This was a great team win. Both halves, we played solid, and the second half we came out and played even stronger. I thought we shared the ball pretty well. Everyone was finishing plays and playing on the attack. When we play like that, we are hard to be beat.”

 

“Coach has really challenged me to not pick up any dumb fouls and to stay in the game. He has told me the team needs me in there, and I think I did a pretty good job today. It has been a while since I haven’t had a foul in a game.”

 

“I don’t think we had a single offensive rebound in the first half, and that is something we do. They did a great job getting us out of that. But in the second half, we came out and we got an offensive rebound on the first possession.”

 

“All three of Montana’s big guys fouling out is what happens when we play on the attack. It wasn’t just me, but it was the other guys coming in. We as big guys are hard to stop when we play like we did tonight.”

 

Tyler Haws

“It was a team effort tonight. Everyone that came into the game gave us great minutes. It was a team effort for sure.”

 

“I really didn’t hear about the 20-point streak until the media told me about it. I come into every game with the same mindset to take the good shots and hopefully they fall. I think I came up short, but it’s alright.”