Cougars roar past the Knights

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The BYU men’s basketball team defeated Southern Virginia 101-48 after a strong team effort, the starters giving some minutes to the second-string guys. BYU’s win over SVU marks the first time during the Dave Rose era that seven players have scored in double digits.

Fans were able to see a variety of the BYU roster on the court, and the win was a clear team effort from each player.

“I liked the fact that we got to play some of the guys who have shown what they can do in practice really well but haven’t been able to play in a game situation,” BYU basketball head coach Rose said. “They got extended minutes tonight, and I think that alone will help us down the road.”

Teammate Jake Toolson filled up the stat sheets with a leading 15 points, five of his eight shots from behind the arc, seven rebounds, four steals and four assists. Talk about wow factor, even wowing Rose.

“Jake actually got the most minutes tonight, and he made great use of those minutes,” Rose said. “He was the only one who hit a three for us, but I really like the other parts of his game. His floor game in general. Defensively, he is learning our system a little better. He rebounded the ball, assisted the ball and shot the ball.”

Kyle Collinsworth took tonight off to make sure not to push his limits, while Skyler Halford ended up on the bench for the rest of the game due to minor hip discomfort.

The game started out loose, with a little too much street play for the Cougars and their normal style. Only five minutes in the game and the Cougars held more than a 10-point advantage, stopping the ball at every opportunity possible.

Tyler Haws and Luke Worthington scored the first seven points, with Haws scoring the first bucket of the game on a jump shot. Worthington followed up with two back-to-back dunks in less than a 30-second span that made BYU fans go nuts.

“It was a scrappy game,” Rose said. “A positive thing for us is we got to play a lot of guys a lot of minutes. For the most part we stayed within what we wanted to do. There were a couple times where we got a little ragged, but defensively we stayed within our system.”

Coming out at half time, BYU continued its strong play with a 27-6 run over the first 7:55 of the second half. Winder showed energy on both ends of the court to start the half with the steal and a bucket on one end and a block on the other end. The Cougars’ run extended their lead to 48 points.

Tyler Haws checked out with 13 points, just four short of his 2,000 goal. Frank Bartley left with a career high this game of seven assists.

BYU will need to pick up its intensity behind the arc after shooting only 23.8 percent of its 3-pointers, all of which were made by Toolson. Fans were a little surprised by the lack of points in comparison.

Nate Austin played a big role on and off the bench. He was either giving words of encouragement and advice or cheering on his team from the bench.

SVU started to pick up its intensity to try to stop the ball on defense and attack on offense, but the Cougars were unstoppable.

Following a 6-0 run by SVU, Corbin Kaufusi’s free throw and a dunk by Nixon at the 7:11 mark maintained BYU’s 45-point lead. With 5:01 remaining, Toolson assisted Josh Sharp on an alley-oop dunk that made fans go crazy and was followed by another shot from beyond the arc by Toolson to put BYU up 88-38. Isaac Neilson’s free throw gave the Cougars their largest lead of the night at 56 points with 2:08 remaining.

The outstanding closer of the night was the 3-pointer made yet again by Toolson with 00:02 on the clock, taking the game 101-48. BYU shot an overal 54.4 percent from the field, outrebounded the Knights 51-33 and scored 35 points off Southern Virginia turnovers.

The game marked several new records. BYU scores 90 points or more in the first three games of the season, something that hasn’t occurred since the 1978–1979 season.

BYU’s next game against San Diego State will be challenging, but the Cougars seem to be “ready to go.”

“We are happy to be a part of it, but we want to win games too,” Haws said. “We know the challenge ahead of us, and we think we can compete with anyone, so we have been looking forward to it and building up to this point.”

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