BYU vs. Illinois State Box Score
BYU vs. Illinois State Game Recap
Player Notes
TJ Haws scored a season-high 20 points and added three assists and two boards in the win.
Elijah Bryant opened the night with a 3-pointer and has now scored at least one in every game this season. He recorded a career-high nine assists and tied his career-high nine rebounds, while scoring 17 points and adding three steals and a block.
Yoeli Childs recorded 17 points and grabbed seven boards.
In nine games this season, Dalton Nixon has scored 60 points, four more than he scored in 27 games played his freshman year.
Team Notes
With a score of 39-17 at halftime, the Cougars allowed a season-low for points by an opponent in the first half and held the Redbirds to 23.3 percent from the field, while shooting 50 percent on the offensive end.
At the end of the game, BYU shot 53 percent from the field compared to Illinois State’s 44 percent and both teams shot 29 percent from beyond the arc.
Quotes
BYU head coach Dave Rose
Thoughts on game
"The position of this game on the calendar, in the middle of these in-state games, it was a real challenge for our guys. I think emotionally and physically we responded to the challenge really well. They out-played us in the second half and hopefully we can get in here tomorrow and get that fixed. I’m happy for the guys and for our team. It was a good win in a tough challenge. That’s a good team and I think they are going to win a lot of games."
BYU guard Elijah Bryant
Thoughts on game
“We stuck to our concepts and tried to do what we do every day. We’ve got to get back to that and put two halves together."
Thoughts on Saturday's game
“It will be a great experience playing in an NBA arena. Weber State is a great team, so we still have to come out and execute our concepts.”
BYU guard TJ Haws
Thoughts on game
“In the first half, we really defended as a team, and then in the second half, we kind of went away from that. We give credit to Illinois State—they are a great shooting team. We definitely could have done a lot better in the second half. We got open looks in the first half and everyone was helping to make the extra pass. Everyone was getting good looks and guys were finding me for open shots. We talk about playing team basketball on both ends of the floor. When you do that and you’re making the extra pass and playing as a team, it really gives everyone confidence. When you have your open shot, you shoot it. We build off each other’s confidence.”
On Saturday's game
“It’s always a lot of fun to play in an NBA arena, especially close to home where we’ll have a lot of fans. It will be fun to play Weber State with McKay [Cannon] transferring. That should be a fun game.”