After laying an egg against Pacific in Provo, the BYU Cougars faced a possibility of dropping two in a row as they took to the road and paid the San Francisco Dons a visit. The teams played a shootout a few weeks ago in Provo and the way the game started, it looked to be more of the same. Early on the teams traded shots as the Dons kept the game close. This held up until BYU went on an 8-0 run and pushed their lead to 15-7.
For the rest of the half the Cougars played cat and mouse as they would build up their lead and then give a little back. With the three point shot falling for everyone, the Cougars had an 18 point lead late in the half before the Dons hit a basket with six seconds to go. Rushing down the court Kyle Collinsworth tossed up a buzzer beating three point shot from the top of the key to give the Cougars a 58-39 halftime lead. Shots were falling from all over for the Cougars in the half as Nick Emery hit a long three off a screen, a bank-shot three, and then Collinsworth made the buzzer beater. BYU ended the half 9 of 14 from behind the arc and shot 58% from the field. Emery led all scorers at the half as he put up 20 in the first 20 minutes.
The Dons came out a little more composed on offense in the second half, and with the officials calling the game a little tighter, pulled within 14 early in the half. Emery would not let this run last as he hit a couple of three pointers, one from Jimmer range, that put the Cougars back up by 20 at the under 16 timeout. Once again the Dons answered but the Cougars continued to hit shots and wouldn't let San Francisco pull closer than 15 the rest of the way. The effort by the Cougars can't be questioned as they ran the floor and made the plays they needed to make. Even with a large lead the Cougars continued pushing as shown by the effort from Corbin Kaufusi. After being fouled on a shot, he missed both free throws, and by pure effort he then rebounded the second miss and was fouled again on the shot.
Just a few plays later, the Cougars pushed the ball and Emery found Collinsworth for a tremendous ally-oop, showing the team effort once again. With the Cougars continuing to hit shots from all over the floor, the Dons started to lose a bit of focus and energy. Emery continued to shoot the ball and with over six minutes left in the game, the Cougars reached the century mark and led by 22 points.The last six minutes turned into a foul-fest as both teams went to the line and the Cougars at one point led by 26 before ending the game with the 114-89 win.
In the win Emery led all scorers with 37 points on 10 of 12 from behind the arc. Chase Fischer also lit up the scoreboard as he scored 22. In all the Cougars had 6 players score in double digits and Kaufusi ended up with a double-double. The Dons were led by Devin Watson with 29 and Tim Derksen added 25 in the loss. The Cougars will next match up with the Santa Clara Broncos on Saturday at 2 pm on BYUtv.