Player Notes
Yoeli Childs recorded his eighth double-double of the season with 21 points and 12 rebounds. He also led the team with six assists, tying his career-high, and added three steals.
Elijah Bryant led all scorers with 25 points and shot 5 of 8 from beyond the arc. Bryant contributed three assists, two rebounds and one steal in the win.
Zac Seljaas made his sixth career start as a Cougar and shot 100 percent, tallying eight points, four assists, three rebounds, one steal and one block.
TJ Haws contributed 10 points and three assists. McKay Cannon added eight points and Rylan Bergersen grabbed a career-high four rebounds.
Team Notes
After the first half, the Cougars led the Waves 40-34, while shooting a season-high 60.9 percent from the field compared to Pepperdine's 56.0 percent.
BYU ended the game shooting 58.3 percent from the field and 50.0 percent from the 3-point line. Defensively, the Cougars held the Waves to 48.0 percent and forced 16 turnovers, resulting in 22 points.
Postgame Quotes
BYU guard TJ Haws
About how the team responded following the recent loss
"I thought we did good. It's all about defense. In the first half, I thought we had an okay mentality, but I think in the second half we came out and our mentality on both ends of the floor was really good. In league it's all about making adjustments and I thought we did a good job tonight."
"I think a huge thing for us is having a chip on our shoulder. I think when we come out and we're aggressive on defense and we're talking and helping each other and defending as a team I think we're really good and this year we've shown that together we really can beat anyone. I think it's all about that mindset."
"I really want us to start off strong in those games. In league play if you give any team any confidence, any team can play with any team in this league so I'm hoping that right from the get-go we're ready to go and locked in on the defensive end and aggressive on the offensive end."
Thoughts about whether he is a better basketball player this year versus last year
"I think just every game I'm trying to get better. Ultimately with this offense, it's all about making the right play so if I come off a screen and I have an open look, I'm going to shoot it. If that big guy helps, I dump it off to Yoeli. I'm just trying to make the offensive play every time. I'm just trying to get better every game. I don't really think too much about this year versus last year."
Thoughts moving forward in the conference
"I'm excited. I really think we can beat anyone. I feel like if we're doing what we do on both ends of the floor and play the way we're supposed to play and the way we've practiced since the summer, I really believe we can beat anyone - not just in this conference but any team."
BYU Forward Yoeli Childs
Thoughts on tonights game
"Our defense leads to our offense and when we guard, things go well. In the first half we were shooting the ball pretty well but a lot of times that doesn't last for the full 40 minutes."
Thoughts moving forward in the conference
"It's early. If you look back to the beginning of the season, look what we were able to do after 3-2 then. We are 3-2 right now. It's early in conference and this is a team I believe in and a team that gets better every game. It's a team that takes things from losses and wins and learns and develops and I think at the end of the season we will be a lot better than we are now. I think we're a lot better now than we were at the beginning of the season so I love this team. I love how much we've grown and how much we've grown playing together so I love our chances."
What makes Eli difficult to guard
"Eli is a special player. He's quick so you can't put a big guy on him or you're done. He's so strong he can bully-guard at the post. He can score at all three levels. He's phenomenal at scoring at the rim. He can give you a one-dribble pull-up. His catch-and-shoot threes are unbelievable. He's just a match-up nightmare. He's one of the hardest workers I've ever played with."
BYU head coach Dave Rose
Thoughts on tonights game
"It’s a good bounce back win for our guys. The first half they had us spread out pretty good. I think we made some nice adjustments at halftime. We were much more aggressive offensively in the second half. We’ve been having a really hard time scoring. I think the key in this game is that we got help. We got help from three or four guys. I think that is probably the difference tonight. We changed a little bit on our actual transition offense to get a little space on the floor so our guards could attack. I think that helped us. We probably scored more points in transition offensively then we have for a while."
On Elijah Bryant
"The growth you can make between your sophomore and junior year is tremendous, at least here over the years. He spent the time, he worked at it, he had some real frustration with injuries during that. Every day, every night, it didn’t matter when I came in my office. You looked out and there was Eli on the floor working on his game. He spent a lot of time at it, he understands out system pretty well and right now he is playing with a lot of confidence."
On Yoeli Childs
"He continues to improve in every aspect of his game. As a rebounder, as a scorer, as a facilitator, I think he understands the game more."