Childs leads balanced attack as BYU Basketball defeats Idaho State

Yoeli Childs scored 20 points on 8/13 shooting to lead the BYU Cougars (10-2) past the Idaho State Bengals (4-6) by a score of 85-71 on Thursday night at the Marriott Center. Payton Dastrup built off of his strong effort off the bench against Utah, scoring a career high 14 points on 5/5 from the field, and 2/2 from beyond the arc. Elijah Bryant and T.J. Haws matched Dastrup with 14 points, with both guards shooting better than 50% from the field. Zac Seljaas continued to do a good job of feeding Yoeli Childs down low, leading the Cougars with 5 assists and zero turnovers.

This game began as a battle between post players, as Childs and Idaho State’s Novak Topalovic both reached double figures in scoring within the first eight minutes of the first half. For the second consecutive game, Dastrup provided a spark off the bench for BYU, immediately scoring five quick points (a three pointer, and a shot fake and drive for a layup) to give BYU a 23-21 lead with 7:48 remaining in the half. Dastrup then fed Bryant on a fastbreak with a nifty pass for an open three to give BYU their largest lead of seven points. Behind 17 first half points from Childs, BYU took a 41-30 lead into the locker room.

The Cougars got off to a hot shooting start in the second half with early three pointers from Haws, Seljaas, and Bryant, who helped BYU open up a 20 point lead. Idaho State cut the Cougar lead down to as few as 12 points, but the outcome was never truly in doubt, as a three-point play from Haws and a long bomb from McKay Cannon put the game away in the final five minutes. BYU will host winless Texas Southern on Saturday to close out non-conference play.