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In the rematch between the Cougars and the Waves, BYU came away victorious as they pulled away late to win 84-72. BYU's Eric Mika and Pepperdines Malcom Brooks and Brendan Lane sat out due to injury, causing both teams to make adjustments to their game-plans. With the 35 points by Haws, he moved past Kresimir Cosic with 39 games of 20 points or more. Kyle Collinsworth flirted with a triple-double as he scored 15 points, had 10 rebounds, and nine assists. Skyler Halford added 18 points and Carlino had six assists in a performance in which the Cougars never trailed.
1st Half
BYU came out from the opening tip running and hitting their shots. Before the first media time out, Tyler Haws had scored seven and Skyler Halford hit a Jimmer range three to help the Cougars start witha 12-0 lead. The Cougars could have led by much more but Kyle Collinsworth started off 1-6 but showed the cougar fight early when he grabbed three straight offensive rebounds, after his own misses, on the same possession before finally getting his first shot to fall. The Cougars played the aggressor for the first part of the half as they found themselves in the bonus with eight minutes into the game, but were unable to capitalize as they were only fouled three times in the next eight minutes. Pepperdine soon went on their own 12-6 run to and went into the second media time out only down by three, 18-15. Pepperdine continued to hang around and with six minutes to play, pulled within one at 24-23. Late in the half, missed free-throws by Nate Austin and Kyle Collinsworth allowed the Waves to tie the game at 28 and then again at 30 before the Cougars took a 33-30 lead into the half. Haws led all scorers with 13 in the half and Halford added seven.
2nd Half
It appeared that BYU would again come out of the locker room strong as Halford scored the first five points of the half but the Wave answered with a 6-0 run. The two teams played physical as six fouls were called in the first four minutes. Both teams struggled to consistently hit shots but Haws hit a shot that helped him pass Joe Nelson and put him 15th on the Cougars all-time scoring list with 1495 points in 86 games. Shortly after Haws made his mark, Matt Carlino hit a three-pointer that moved him into 11th on the Cougars all-time three point list. Behind more physical play, and poor BYU shooting, Pepperdine pulled back to within five with eight minutes to go. the game soon became a whistle-fest as it appeared that calls were being made almost every trip down the court for both teams. Backed by a 12-5 run, the Waves pulled within four, until Haws and Halford scored eight straight points to take back a 10 point lead at 70-60 with just over three minutes left in the game. After Haws scored 11 straight points to give the Cougars a 75-62 lead, the Waves began to foul and the Cougars ended the game at the free-throw line. Pepperdine continued to hit shots at the end, forcing BYU to hit their free-throws in order to hold on.
BYU will play next on Saturday against Loyola Marymount at 7pm in the Marriott Center. The game will be televised on BYUtv.
