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BYU couldn't overcome the hot shooting Waves who hit 13 threes to beat the Cougars 80-74 on Monday night in Malibu, CA. Pepperdine put together a good game plan, but it was the three pointers that were too much for BYU, who only hit one three late in the game.
Pepperdine came out hot to start the game and continued to put the pressure on BYU's defense throughout the first half. The defense has struggled lately and that trend continued in this game as the Cougars fell behind early on. The Waves hit six threes in the first half compared to zero for BYU who missed their five attempts. The Cougars went into halftime down 42-28.
The stats from the first half were not reflective of a typical Dave Rose team. The Cougars had three assist and seven turnovers and were only 50% from the free-throw line. Eric Mika played well early on with seven points in the first half but he ran into foul trouble and sat for extended minutes.
Rose continues to experiment with lineups and played 10 different players in the first half, with nine of them registering points. It is still early in the season, but Rose has still not solidified a regular rotation. It seems like he is still looking for guys to step up and earn playing time, especially on the defensive end.
BYU started out much better in the second half by going on a 9 to 2 run led by Tyler Haws and cut it down to five points, but the Waves went on a run and got the lead back up to 12. Carlino hurt the team with turnovers and a lot of missed shots. The Junior guard has not seemed like himself lately and BYU's big run came when he was on the bench.
Halford continues to earn playing time with his aggressive and smart play. The Salt Lake Community College transfer played extremely well and gave the Cougars a spark when he came in for Carlino early in the second half. Collinsorth also played well for the Cougars as he filled up the stat sheet with 13 rebounds 7 assists and 5 steals.
Malcolm Brooks was unstoppable for Pepperdine and was on fire from behind the arc. The Junior guard had a career high of 22 points and hit 6 threes to lead the Waves to victory. BYU's defense picked up quite a bit throughout the game and they schemed well, but they couldn't seem to find an answer to stop the red hot Waves who finished with 13 threes.
A 10-0 BYU run in the middle of the second half brought life into the crowd after a lifeless first half. There was a large contingent of fans at the game supporting the road team. BYU fed off of the energy and whittled the Waves' lead down to 3 late in the second half, but it wasn't enough in the end to overcome the big deficit.
Of note:
*The Cougars have not won a game when down by more than six points this season; the one six point victory coming against Utah State.
*This is the first time that Dave Rose has lost four consecutive games since being head coach for the Cougars.
*BYU will host their first WCC home game of the year this Saturday against San Diego at 7:00pm.
