Loyal Cougars

It’s Alive! How BYU resurrected its Big Three and beat LMU

Haws, Collinsworth and Carlino combined to help the Cougars get revenge on the Lions — and remind the WCC how good BYU can be.

After laying an egg at Loyola Marymount a couple of weeks ago, BYU got revenge in a big way in Provo on Saturday by blitzing the Lions, 91-68. The Cougars were led in scoring by Tyler Haws’ 31 points and received a huge lift off the bench from Matt Carlino, who scored 18 and added 4 assists. BYU’s Mr. Everything, Kyle Collinsworth, had another stat-sheet-stuffing night as well with 20 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks.

LMU led the Cougars 38-37 at the half after scoring at a blistering pace in the first ten minutes of the game. The game remained tight in the first few minutes of the second half, but eventually BYU’s defense knuckled down and Tyler Haws got hot. The Cougars ended up outscoring the Lions 54-30 in the second half and were able to coast to victory in the final minutes of the game.

Among the impressive things about this victory is that BYU was able to pull it off without freshman star Eric Mika, who sat for the second straight game with a hip injury. Further, BYU got the win despite getting little production tonight from recent breakout star Skyler Halford, who shot an ice cold 0-5 from the field and finished with just two points.

Stray Thoughts:

  • Matt Carlino may not have started, but he played 31 minutes. With minutes like that, he might as well have been the starter.
  • Josh Sharp easily put in his best performance of the year in his second straight game as a starter. Sharp scored 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting and added 4 rebounds.
  • Once Tyler Haws dials in his shot against these mid-level WCC teams, the game is over. At least that’s how it has been the last two games.
  • Where would this BYU team be without Kyle Collinsworth? The kid is a basketball renaissance man for the Cougars.
  • Frank Bartley has slid from the sixth man to the ninth man in the rotation lately. It’s not the worst thing in the world to have a freshman as the ninth man, but it would be nice for Frank to get his groove back and earn more minutes again this season.
  • After his recent scorching hot shooting performances, Skyler Halford had the opposite of that against LMU. Hopefully Sky got his bad game out of his system and can get back to drilling most of his shots again during the next four games on the road.
  • Luke Worthington was 0-for-6 from the free throw line on the season before hitting his two freebies tonight. Well done on that, young man.
  • Anson Winder played well for BYU on both ends in this one and ended up earning about 20 minutes on the court as a result.

BYU now heads on the road for the rest of the month, with swings through the Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest. While the Cougars have proven they can win WCC games at home, they will be seeking their first WCC road win or four over the next couple of weeks.