BYU men’s basketball will seek its eighth win of the season against Prairie View A&M on Wednesday night at the Marriott Center.
Both teams average around 35 percent from the three point arc and have four guys each who average in double figure points per game.
The Cougars are currently 7-3 and have relied on strong play from Tyler Haws, Matt Carlino and Erik Mika this season.
The men have been working on defense in preparation for tonight’s game. “We have given up so many points, especially on the road. We just got to get better. We score a lot of points, but if we are not going to defend better, we are not going to win,” Carlino said.
The freshmen have stepped up this season and surpassed expectations. Frank Bartley and Mika have both been strong team members.
The Texas-based team is 2-6 and relies on strong play from junior Scott Montrael, who averages 15 points, five rebounds and 50 percent from the arc per game.
Coach Dave Rose has not let his team get too comfortable with Prairie View’s 2-6 record.
“It is a good team. They have played a good schedule. They played some of those teams really well. They had a game cancelled the other night, a home game. But this team, when they get going, every game you can see signs of a really talented team that has got real scoring power, and hopefully we can kind of neutralize that,” Rose said.
The Cougars are coming off a 96-105 loss against the UMass Minutemen Saturday, Dec. 7. The contest against the Panthers is expected to be a high-scoring game that will give the Cougars a chance to practice defense.
“So it is pretty similar to the last two games we have played. They like to push the ball in transition. We are going to have to do a good job defensively,” Rose said.
The game will be held in the Marriott Center at 8 p.m. and televised on BYUtv and broadcast live on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM and 1160 AM.
