BYU Basketball Recap: USD outlasts Cougars, 88-75

BYU basketball was right in the soft part of the WCC schedule, between the game at St. Mary’s on January 5th, and the home game against Gonzaga on February 2nd. On paper, a strong and talented BYU team should mow through these teams and hopefully go .500 against St. Zaga. However, BYU falls to USD in what has become a pattern since joining the WCC, having the wheels fall off on saturday road games in conference.

The game started close with both teams trading baskets through most of the first half. Mika contributed only 2 points and Nick Emery was limited to only 7 minutes due to foul trouble. The Cougars went into the break down 34-32.

TJ Haws came out of the break on fire and looked to single handedly put the game out of reach. At about the 10 minute mark, USD caught fire from deep and slowly pulled put the game away.

The Toreros finished the game shooting 57.1% from deep (12/21) and 75.9% from the line (22/29). Despite having a size advantage down low with Mika and Childs, the production of the BYU front court was very limited. Mika finished with 11 points and Childs scored 6 points. USD would have pulled away a lot sooner if it wasn’t for the dominance of TJ Haws who scored 27 points with 6 made three pointers.

With this loss, an already unlikely berth in the NCAA tournament is even less likely. Since joining the WCC, BYU has struggled to take care of business against weak conference opponents. Their next chance to build some momentum is against Pepperdine in the Marriott Center on Thursday.