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Loyola Marymount started fast and BYU could never recover. They raced to a 17-5 lead to start the game and led by double digits the rest of the game. It was a very disappointing loss for BYU fans as they looked to recover from a bowl drubbing to Washington in the Fight Hunger Bowl.
LMU's Evan Payne dropped 27 points, 15 of those from downtown as he shot 5 of 9 from 3 to lead all scorers.
Tyler Haws, BYU's leading scorer who came into the game averaging 23 points per game struggled from the field shooting 4/15 and only scored a shocking 11 points, 12 points below his season average. Matt Carlino, BYU's second leading scorer didn't do much better. He dropped 13 points and only had 1 assist as the starting point guard.
Kyle Collinsworth and Eric Mika were the bright spots for BYU, Big Russia had 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists on 7/13 shooting and Mika had 17 points and 7 rebounds on 5 of 8 shooting. Mika is showing some consistency as a true freshman which is delightful to see.
LMU's largest lead was 21 points early in the 2nd half. This game showed some similarities to the Utah Utes game. Utah started out hot, got up big early, BYU's best players struggled to hit shots, and BYU never overcame the early deficit.
Every game BYU lost up to this point were against 4 ranked teams and Utah who is a one-loss team who was very motivated to win the game. The loss against LMU should come as a shock to BYU fans. It was out of left field and no BYU fan expected us to lose to LMU before the season or even before the game.
BYU shockingly shot a better field goal percentage at 44 percent to LMU's 42 percent and BYU out-rebounded LMU by 3 boards.
BYU shot worse from 3, and from the charity stripe, had less assists, less steals, less blocks, more turnovers, and more fouls than LMU. Those statistical categories describe exactly how the game went.
BYU simply got outplayed. Not a good way to start off WCC play with a loss, but hopefully it can motivate the Cougars to bounce back and realize this isn't just a two team league with Gonzaga and St. Mary's anymore.
BYU plays at (7-5) Pepperdine next Monday at 8pm MST.
