BYU vs. USF postgame notes and quotes

Postgame Notes

Player Notes

Matt Carlino finished with a season-high 22 points, a career-high 5 steals and tied his career high with 7 rebounds.
Tyler Haws also finished with 22 points for his 10th game with 20 or more points.
Brock Zylstra finished with a season-high 16 points and tied his season high with 7 rebounds.
Brock Zylstra made his third 3-pointer of the game with 1:05 left in the first half for a new season high in 3-pointers made.
Josh Sharp finished with 10 rebounds, to lead all players, for his second-straight double-figure rebound performance this season.
Brock Zylstra reached double-digit points with a jumper at the buzzer before halftime to cut San Francisco’s lead to 46-37.
Matt Carlino reached double-digit points with a jumper at the 18:01 mark in the second half to cut San Francisco’s lead to 49-43.
Tyler Haws reached double-digit points on a free throw at the 15:11 mark in the second half to cut San Francisco’s lead to 53-48.

Team Notes

Dave Rose started Matt Carlino, Brock Zylstra, Tyler Haws, Josh Sharp and Brandon Davies for the fourth-straight game and ninth time this season. The Cougars are now 7-2 this season with that lineup.
With BYU’s 9-point deficit at halftime against San Francisco, the Cougars have now trailed 5 times this season at the half – 4 of the 5 times by 9 points. Of those five games, BYU has now come back and won two of them.
The Cougars are now 8-5 against the Dons all time.
For the first time this season, BYU won the game despite shooting a lower field goal percentage, 3-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage than its opponent.

Game Trends

After going down 9-2 in the first half, BYU answered with 9-straight points for a 11-9 lead at the 15:50 mark in the first half.
Brock Zylstra scored the last 8 points for BYU heading into the half to cut San Francisco’s lead to 46-37.
BYU took its first lead since 11-9 at the beginning of the game after a Matt Carlino basket with 6:15 left in the second half, up 70-69.
BYU went on a 7-0 run in the second half to go up 77-71 with 1:45 to play. The run gave BYU the lead for good.

Postgame Quotes

Matt Carlino
“We had to get stops at the end and we did it. We came in here and got a big one. We knew we had to stay with this one because USF was going to be tough. I thought we rebounded really well and that was a huge key – they didn’t get many second chance shots. It was a big time effort by everyone.”

“We’ve played against a lot of good point guards this season, and that’s helped me to be a better player. Cody (Doolin) was great tonight and really pushed me to be my best.”

Dave Rose
“I think that’s what really excites our coaching staff and players – we have a rhythm now where we can win games but tonight we were out of that rhythm and were still able to win. The fight in our guys continues to amaze me.”

“They had us so spread out tonight on defense but we were able to match up with them. We ended up trying to play their game and it was nice we got the win. It was a good win for our team.”

“We had to change our philosophy at the half because their shooting was so fantastic in the first half. That gave (Cody) Doolin more opportunities to drive against us. Our coaches and guys just had to keep making adjustments.”