BYU Defeats Saint Mary’s, Keeps At-Large Hopes Alive

With second place in the WCC at stake, the BYU Cougars (18-10, 10-5) ventured into Moraga, Calif. and defeated the Saint Mary’s Gaels (19-7, 9-5) 60-57.

Neither team were able to get their respective high-powered offenses going, but BYU ended up on top due to free throw shooting in the later stages of the game.

The Gaels had the ball down by 1 in the waning seconds of the game, but Kerry Carter turned the ball over to BYU with 8 seconds remaining. A proverbial free-throw contest then emerged, with BYU not wanting to replicate last year’s Dellavedagger episode from last year and fouling the Gaels while it was up 3. BYU drained its foul shots and coasted to a 60-57 victory in the final 8 seconds of the game.

Tyler Haws led all scorers with 18 points on the evening, and Kyle Collinsworth joined him in double-figures with 14 points. Nate Austin pulled down 11 rebounds to lead the Cougars in that category, and Haws and Matt Carlino distributed out 4 assists to lead BYU.

Brad Waldow’s 17 points led the Gaels tonight, with Stephen Holt chipping in 13 of his own. Waldow had 13 rebounds as well to complete the requirements for a double-double. Senior forward Beau Levesque had 4 assists to lead Saint Mary’s in that category.

As alluded to before, BYU moves into sole possession of second place in the WCC with the win. Saint Mary’s falls to third place with the loss. If San Francisco defeats Santa Clara later tonight then they will join the Gaels there.

BYU will host the first place Gonzaga Bulldogs next while Saint Mary’s will travel to San Francisco to take on the Dons. Both games should have a great deal of implications on the final WCC standings.