PLAYER NOTES
Scoring 27 points, TJ Haws surpassed his previous career high of 20. He also scored in double digits for the 13th time this season.
Haws hit two treys in the first half, giving him multiple 3-pointers in a game for the 12th time this season. He added four more in the second half to give him a new career high with six. His six 3-pointers are tied for the fourth-most by a Cougar freshman and are a career high.
Nick Emery hit a 3-pointer early in the first half to extend his streak to 28 consecutive games with a made triple, tying Jimmer Fredette for the longest streak in BYU history.
Eric Mika recorded his fifth-straight double-double and 11th of the season with 11 points and 15 rebounds. He had 10-plus boards for the 11th time this season. Mika has scored in double figures every game this season. He tied a career high with four blocks.
Yoeli Childs blocked a shot in the second half to give him 31 on the year, breaking a three-way tie with Allan Pollard and Chris Miles for fourth-most by a BYU freshman.
TEAM NOTES
Dave Rose started the same lineup for the 13th straight game with L.J. Rose, Nick Emery, TJ Haws, Yoeli Childs and Eric Mika. BYU drops to 9-4 with that starting lineup.
The Cougars dropped to 1-5 this season when trailing at the half (34-32). The 32 points in the first half tied a season low for BYU (USC).
BYU had only two players scoring in double figures for just the third time this season with Haws (27) and Mika (11). The team falls to 1-2 with just two in double figures this year.
The game featured nine lead changes and four ties.
Head coach Dave Rose
“Right now this team is a pretty good team at home but we get out on the road and we have a hard time executing the way we do at home. Teams obviously play a lot better at home but for us we have too many times during the game where we waste possessions on the road.”
“The biggest thing was when it was time to win the game in the last three, four and five minutes, [San Diego's] execution on both ends of the floor was so much better than ours. They just had a real composure to them and we were kind of scattered.”
Guard L.J. Rose
“I think initially we didn’t come out with the right focus and attention to detail. We weren’t playing aggressive on either end. [San Diego] has good players and shooters and they kind of got themselves going early. It was hard to slow them down.”
“Conference is like a new season. Games like this you ultimately learn from. We have a young team but that’s no excuse. We are in January now. Ultimately we will learn from this that we can’t take teams for granted and can’t take possessions for granted. Teams want to beat us and we have a target on our backs.”