BYU Gets Comfortable Win over Weber State
By James Pigott
Dec 13, 2014; Ogden, UT, USA; Weber State Wildcats guard Jeremy Senglin (30) gets between Brigham Young Cougars guard Kyle Collinsworth (5) and Brigham Young Cougars forward Dalton Nixon (30) to shoot the ball during the first half at Dee Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-USA TODAY Sports
Tyler Haws scored 19 points as BYU rebounded after the Utah loss with an easy win at Weber State, 76-60. Haws scored his 19 points on a solid 5/10 shooting to go with 7 rebounds and 5 assists. However, he sprained his ankle at the end of the game, and it is unknown how severe the injury is and how long he’ll be out for.Isaac Neilson had his best game in a BYU uniform, filling in for the injured Nate Austin with 15 points on 4/5 three point shooting. Chase Fischer continued his pattern of good game-bad game with a strong showing of 13 points on 4/7 three point shooting. Kyle Collinsworth had a poor showing plagued by foul trouble, with just 2 points, 2 assists, and 4 turnovers. Anson Winder tied a season low of 9 points, but still shot 4/7 from the field and had 5 rebounds.
BYU limited Weber State star forward Joel Bolomboy to 9 points on 2/6 shooting and just 7 rebounds, both well below his season averages. He was also unable to use his interior defense as BYU center Isaac Neilson killed the Wildcats from beyond the arc. Jeremy Senglin was by far the best Wildcats player with 16 points and 5 assists, but he did not get enough support from their usually productive frontcourt. James Hajek was the only other Weber State player in double figures with 11 points on 5/7 shooting.
The Cougars jumped out to an early 20-6 lead behind the of Haws, Fischer, and Neilson, and while the Wildcats made some runs, they never really challenged BYU for the victory. After the first media timeout of the game, the Cougar lead was never smaller than 8 and grew as big as 17 at one point in the second half.
Stat of the Night
BYU was absolutely on fire from beyond the arc, going 12/19 from three point range led by four long range bombs each from Fischer and Neilson. Weber State continued their trend of poor three point shooting by going just 3/12 from distance. That’s a 27 point advantage from beyond the arc for the Cougars which helped them make up for the 16 turnovers they committed compared to the Wildcats’ mere 10.
Moving Forward
The Cougars really need to win their last two non-conference games at home against Stanford and UMass to have any hope at all of a potential at-large bid in the NCAA tournament, although it’s possible that ship has already sailed. They host Stanford next Saturday, and the Cardinal are coming off of a bad loss to DePaul and an ugly poor performance in a 49-43 victory over Denver, where star point guard Chasson Randle shot just 2 of 15 from the field. Hopefully Haws is healthy for those two games because the Cougars really need to win both of them.