BYU vs Stanford:112-103

From the get go the BYU guards attacked the interior Stanford defense and didn’t let up the entire game on their way to a 112-103 victory .  BYU got key contributions from Collinsworth, Carlino, Haws and Winder in the first half.  Carlino got the BYU offense going by scoring 7 of the first 15 points for BYU and Collinsworth chipped in with 12 of his own. BYU was able to have a 9-0 scoring run in both halves of play to put pressure on Stanford who didn’t have an answer for BYU’s up tempo attack.

Dave Rose got the big guys involved by running some plays to Mika down low, who showed strongly in his second collegiate start although the game needs to slow down a bit for him still.   Winder was once again solid on the defensive end and added two threes to give a spark for BYU off the bench.  It’s great to see Winder start off the year so strong; Cougar fans will remember that Winder had an ankle injury that kept him sidelined early last season.

This Cougar team is much deeper this year.  Rose experimented with many different lineups and 10 guys saw significant minutes.  There was a lot of the traditional two big man set and a lot with Mika as the solo big man anchoring the middle of the paint.  The four guard lineup allows BYU to push the tempo as any one of four Cougars can bring the ball up the court when Collinsworth is playing down low.  The Cougars had 16 points off of turnovers in the first half

The small lineup for BYU gave Stanford quite a few matchup problems on the defensive end, but as they pounded the ball inside it was clear that BYU needed some more rebounding power down low.  The Cougars fouled 10 times in the first 11 minutes of the game and allowed Stanford to hang around as the Cardinal went 13 of 16 from the free throw line at one point.  Randle played well for Stanford as he hit shots from all over the court.  He had 13 of the first 21 points for Stanford and finished with 33 for the Cardinal.  Dwight Powell had 28 for the Cardinal and had a few big dunks that pumped up the crowd.

BYU didn’t let up in the second half as the trio of Haws, Carlino and Collinsworth continued to attack the rim.  Haws was his normal self hitting circus shots all over the court and Carlino was relentless in his dribble penetration; getting to the rim time and time again. They finished with 31 and 25 points respectively.   Collinsworth flirted with a triple double ending up with 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists; with an additional 3 steals for good measure. The defensive effort was also much better in the second half for BYU, who didn’t foul nearly as much as the first half.  Nate Austin showed a ton of hustle as he took a charge grabbed 7 boards and knocked down a three.

This was a quality win for a BYU team who let Weber State hang around last Friday night in Provo.  BYU kept the rim attack up most of the night and added 8 threes to keep Stanford from making a run late in the game.  Overall, this was a complete game for BYU who only had 11 turnovers compared to 16 for Stanford and imposed their tempo and style of play on Stanford for most of the night.