BYU faces San Francisco for 2nd Place

Jan 18, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Diego Toreros forward/center

(33) loses control of the ball against San Francisco Dons forward

(15) and guard

(5) during the first half at War Memorial Gymnasium. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

BYU Cougars (16-9, 8-4) vs. San Francisco Dons (15-9, 8-4)

Date: Saturday, February 8, 2014

Location: Marriott Center, Provo, UT

Time: 6:00 PM PST

TV: BYUtv

Video: byutv.org

LiveStats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=33653

Last Season: BYU won at San Francisco 80-76, while San Francisco won at Provo 99-87.

PROJECTED STARTERS 

BYU

Kyle Collinsworth, 14.1 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 5.0 APG

Skyler Halford, 8.8 PPG

Tyler Haws, 24.7 PPG

Eric Mika, 13.0 PPG, 6.5 RPG

Nate Austin, 4.1 PPG, 8.1 RPG

San Francisco

Matt Glover, 8.3 PPG, 3.4 APG, 5.9 RPG

Avry Holmes, 12.2 PPG

Cole Dickerson, 14.8 PPG, 7.0 RPG

Kruize Pinkins, 12.4 PPG, 6.8 RPG

Mark Tollefsen, 11.3 PPG

KEYS TO THE GAME

BYU

Play some defense: It’s something the Cougars have not done very much of against the Dons during their 3 year tenure in the West Coast Conference.  BYU might have to go zone simply because they cannot match up with San Francisco’s large and powerful front court.  But that means that they need to close out on shooters like Avry Holmes, Mark Tollefsen, and Tim Derksen.  It’ll be interesting to see which defensive schemes the Cougars use.

San Francisco

Keep playing to their strengths: San Francisco knows exactly what they need to do on offense more than any other team in the league.  They need to keep looking inside to Cole Dickerson, Kruize Pinkins, and on occasion Marc Tollefsen, and those players need to look to score or kick it out to open shooters for the Dons to be successful on offense.

KEY MATCHUP

Tyler Haws vs. Matt Glover:  I would imagine that Matt Glover is the best-equipped Don to guard the red-hot Tyler Haws.  If Glover can keep Haws under 25 points, then the Dons have a pretty decent shot of winning this game.  If Haws goes off, it will be a long night for USF.

PREDICTION

This will be a close but high scoring contest with an extremely fast tempo.  San Francisco might want a slightly lower tempo than BYU, but the Cougars will have too much offensive talent.  BYU 88, San Francisco 83.