Saturday Knight Live— Seneca, Barcello lead BYU men’s hoops past Weber State 89-71
BYU men’s basketball seemingly couldn’t miss against Weber State Saturday night, shooting a season-high 61.5% from behind the arc with 16 made threes in an 89-71 road win.
Seneca Knight helped set the tone early for the Cougars, scoring 12 points in a close, back and forth first half before Mark Pope’s motley crew pulled away in the back half of the contest. The Wildcats clawed back at times to keep it close, but ultimately BYU’s deep shooting proved too much to handle.
After a slow start that saw a few uncharacteristic turnovers, misses and just five points in the first half, Alex Barcello rallied for 18 points after halftime to finish the night with 23 points on 5-6 three point shooting.
“He makes your life really easy as a teammate and coach,” Pope said of Barcello. “He’s so tough and so dialed in.”
Knight and Spencer Johnson provided a spark off the bench for the Cougars, scoring 14 and 13 points respectively while combining for five makes from downtown. Trevin Knell posted 11 points, Te’Jon Lucas dished out six assists and Caleb Lohner showed flashes of brilliance in the post with nine points and eight boards, a visible improvement from recent struggles down low as the sophomore moves around to fill in for injured big men Gavin Baxter and Richard Harward.
“We got guys playing all out of position, and Caleb certainly did that,” Pope said. “Caleb got tougher and more physical inside as the game went on, and I’m proud of him.”
As is typically BYU’s bread and butter, the Cougars won the rebounding battle, made plays on defense to result in eight steals and responded from their recent, bruising loss to Creighton with 32 points in the paint.
The Cougars— who have never lost consecutive games in Pope’s tenure as head coach— move to 9-2 on the season and head to Hawaii next week for the Diamond Head Classic tournament, facing off with USF Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. MST. Should the Cougars win on Wednesday, they’ll advance with the chance to play two additional games in the eight team bracket-style tournament setup.
“If we win three games, we’ll be swimming all night long,” Pope said of the team’s Hawaii trip.
