BYU Blows by San Francisco with Hot Shooting
By James Pigott
Dec 20, 2014; Provo, UT, USA; Brigham Young Cougars guard Chase Fischer (1) dribbles the ball while being guarded by Stanford Cardinal guard Robert Cartwright (2) during the second half at Marriott Center. Brigham Young Cougars won the game 79-70. Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-USA TODAY Sports
The BYU Cougars displayed their offensive prowess once again by nearly reaching the century mark in their defeat of the USF Dons, 99-68. The Cougars shot an unbelievable 11/15 from beyond the arc in the first half, and led 57-29 at the half. While they inevitable cooled off in the second half, they always held a comfortable lead en route to the victory.
Tyler Haws led the Cougars with 22 points (8/12 shooting, 3/4 from beyond the arc) and 7 rebounds. After being granted a 10th assist on a pass to Chase Fischer who took one dribble and nailed a three pointer, Kyle Collinsworth got his 3rd triple-double of the season. Collinsworth finished with 12 points on 5/7 shooting, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, and only 2 turnovers.
Despite sitting the final 16 minutes of the game after a technical foul, Anson Winder had a hot first half and finished with 17 points on 5/8 shooting to go with 4 assists. Chase Fischer had another hot shooting game, finishing with 20 points on 6/9 from beyond the arc. Jake Toolson had his second strong game in a row with 11 points on 3/4 from distance.
The Cougars did an excellent job rebounding the ball and had 40-28 rebound advantage over the Dons. When BYU gets out and runs in transition like this, their lack of interior scoring doesn’t make a difference. All of the USF misses allowed BYU to rebound and outlet to Collinsworth, who did a great job finding shooters on all spots of the floor.
USF Continues Their Slump (By Mary Harvill)
BYU showcased their amazing talent against USF in War Memorial Gym with a scoring extravaganza that could also be described as a blood bath. Though the Dons solidered on through the game, playing valiantly, the disappointment was visible. There have not been any answers on how to stop the slide for this team and some wondering as to where the team goes from here. Maybe to the Big Sky conference? It is no fun to get clobbered anywhere but especially at home. Might be hard to sell the skyboxes that are set to be constructed at War Memorial for next year.
Kruize Pinkins returned to his normal scoring form with 15 points in this game and he played capable defense as well. Mark Tollefsen was tasked with guarding and attempting limit Tyler Haws scoring to the degree that is possible. Haws finished the game with 22 points. Tollefsen had 12 points. Devin Watson finished the game as the team’s second highest scorer with 13 points and dished out 4 assists. A great evening for the freshman guard who also started the game. Tim Derksen led the team with 6 rebounds and added 11 points.
BYU was especially effective in shooting not only in their shot selection but in the quality and quantity of shots taken and made. Coach Walters remarked that BYU’s shot quality was high. The BYU rebounding effort, most notably by Kyle Collingsworth who had 12 rebounds on his own, compared to the USF rebounding effort was striking. USF had a 28 rebounds for the entire game. Not grabbing rebounds was another measure of USF’s lack of effectiveness in this game.
Moving Forward
BYU will look to keep their hot streak going when they host Pepperdine and LMU next week. USF will have a tough time getting back on track with two tough road games at Gonzaga and at Portland.