The Cougar starting backcourt duo combined for 41 points - Fredette with 22, Emery with 19. Both guards each added three steals. Also of note was freshman Tyler Haws who filled up the stat sheet with 9 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal in 24 minutes off the bench. In other news, the most polarizing dude in Provo, (this side of Max Hall) continued his poor start to the season. Tavernari shot a horrific 2 of 12 (and came up empty from long-distance in six attempts).
It was good to see Haws and Abouo play well, and it goes to show how deep this team is when they can win so impressively with their second leading scorer and most experience player performing so terribly. The defense tonight was stellar. The Bengals were held to 30% shooting and committed 16 turnovers. Of course some of that is the Marriott Center, but some of it isn't. ISU's two leading scorers combined to shoot 3 of 19. Suddenly, JT's shooting doesn't look so bad...until Saturday at least in Honolulu.