BYU Basketball Recap: BYU falls to Santa Clara 76-68

BYU had won 17 in a row against Santa Clara, with their last loss coming on Dec 2nd, 1972. As has become the norm when playing on the road this season, BYU never got into a rhythm offensively and allowed 14 made three pointers in a crucial conference loss.

The halftime score was 34-28, and they were lucky to only be down by six at that point. Coming out of the break SCU continued to make three pointers to extend their lead. BYU had a real chance to get back into the game after two of Santa Clara’s big men, Jadersten and Ndumanya, had both fouled out with about eight minutes left to play. BYU was unable to take advantage of lack of rim protection due to Mika’s fourth foul.

Every time the Cougars looked to start a run, Santa Clara found a way to hit a another three pointer. They finished the game shooting 14/31 from distance (45.2%). BYU only attempted 15 total three pointers and made a paltry 20% of them (3).

Mika had 22 points and eight rebounds on 7/16 shooting. Elijah Bryant scored 13 points on 5/8 shooting. Emery maintained his streak of games with a made three pointer, but finished the game with only five points.

BYU ended the game with an unbelievable 18 turnovers.

It would take a miracle at this point to earn an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament, but they do have a home game against the likely #1 team in the country, Gonzaga, a week from tonight to potentially turn the season around.