BYU Completes Bay Area Sweep in Win Over San Francisco

BYU finished strong once again in a 72-63 road win over San Francisco. BYU was down 47-44 with under 8 minutes to go but turned up the pressure on both sides of the ball to run away with the game. BYU beat St Mary’s in similar fashion Thursday night when they allowed the Gaels to score only 2 points the final 10:36 the game.

Big man Richard Harward was the spark dow the stretch, finishing with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Harward had multiple offensive rebounds and putbacks that infused energy into BYU’s whole team. Alex Barcello led BYU with 19 points and Gideon George had another nice game with 12 points. Matt Haarms chipped in 9 points to go along with 7 rebounds and 2 blocks.

BYU dominated the paint once again and finished with 40 points in the paint. USF was 13-36 from three, but BYU outrebounded the Dons 45-27 and did what they wanted down low for most of the night. USF guard Khalil Shabazz scored 30 points and hit 8 threes to lead the Dons.

The Bay Area sweep was huge for BYU. St Mary’s was a quad one NET win and USF was just outside of that with its 85 NET ranking. USF beat Virginia earlier in the season and is one of the top WCC teams.

BYU seems to be sitting on the right side of the bubble 3 games into the WCC season. Gonzaga, USF, and St Mary’s road games are likely the 3 toughest games BYU has in the WCC and BYU went 2-1.

BYU’s next game is Thursday at home versus Portland. The Cougars are 11-3 overall and 2-1 in the WCC.