Cougars beat Broncos on the road

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BYU men’s basketball team dealt the Santa Clara Broncos their third loss in a row on Saturday with a 82–64 victory.

Tyler Haws scored a game-high 24 points, on 10-14 shooting, to go along with five rebounds and three steals. Brock Zylstra contributed 15 points of his own, going three for four beyond the arc, and Matt Carlino continued his strong conference play with 13 points, three steals and a team-high eight assists.

Coming out of the gate with intensity was a point of emphasis for the Cougars and on Saturday BYU showed a consistent effort for 40 minutes, just like BYU head coach Dave Rose wanted.

“There’s no question the key to this win was the team’s effort,” Rose said. “It was the best I’ve seen for a full 40 minutes all season. Our coaching staff did a great job preparing the guys for this Santa Clara team, and our guys were able to execute the way we prepared them to execute.”

The players also had a solid understanding of the game plan against Santa Clara.

“We knew they’d come out strong at the start of the game so we just had to be patient until we got a run of our own,” Haws said. “Everyone really stepped up.”

Anson Winder’s defense was big for the Cougars in guarding the Broncos’ guards. He finished with a season-high 10 points and four rebounds off the bench and kept Bronco guard Kevin Foster, who went scoreless the last 13 minutes of the game, in check.

BYU played with great energy on the defensive end, which led to easy scoring out in transition. SCU finished the game shooting only 38.5 percent from the field. BYU finished on 53.6 percent shooting, including a second half 18–0 run that left SCU scoreless for seven minutes.

Foster got off to a slow start, but still scored 22 points and became the WCC all-time three-point leader with his first three-pointer halfway through the first half. After Saturday’s game, he has a total of 366 made three-pointers.

Broncos forward Marc Trasolini’s double-double effort, 17 points and 14 rebounds, was also spoiled by the Cougars.

Five Cougars scored in double figures, and the team remains undefeated in conference play with a 4–0 record and a 14–4 overall record. Rose could not be happier with the direction his team is moving in.

“I have confidence in all of our players — five of them play, eight of them practice but want to play,” Rose said. “It’s hard to decide who to put in but I’m confident now in our guys that I can put in any of them and they’ll step up when I need them to. I’m really happy with how this team is turning out.”

The Cougars welcome the Saint Mary’s Gaels to the Marriott Center Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. MST and San Diego Toreros Saturday at 7:00 p.m.

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