BYU turned a one-time deficit of ten points into another solid victory on the road by beating San Francisco 72-63 at War Memorial Gym on Saturday.
Here are three take-away from the game:
- The Cougars (11-3, 2-1 West Coast Conference) trailed by 47:04 by 8:04 – and trailed by as many as eight earlier in the second half and ten in the first half – but a momentum changed run gave BYU the cushion for the win. The Cougars started running 24-4 over the next seven minutes to build up a 68-51 lead, which included eight consecutive points from Richard Harward, 11 points from Alex Barcello and five from Matt Haarms. This came after BYU had won a 19-2 run at Saint Mary two days earlier.
- BYU shot the Dons (9-7, 3-3 WCC) in the game to 38.1%, while the Cougars shot 44.8% from the field – this shot BYU 51.7% in the second half. BYU also had a significant advantage on the free throw line – the Cougars made 15 of 18, San Francisco hit 2 of 3 – while Barcello led BYU by 19 points. Khalil Shabazz scored 30 points and struck out eight tries in the loss.
- The Cougars dominated in the paint and had a 45-28 setback that led to a 40-18 lead in points in the paint. Harward had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, Gideon George added 12 points and Haarms had nine points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.