BYU vs Longwood: Game Notes & Quotes

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Player Notes
  • Brock Zylstra hit the first three-pointer of the game for the Cougars. The trey makes it two-straight games Zylstra has knocked down the first BYU three. Zylstra finished with six points.
  • Abouo grabbed seven rebounds in the first nine minutes of the game. Abouo finished the first half with nine rebounds and career-high 16 for the game.
  • Anson Winder scored his first career points on his first career shot attempt, a three-pointer with 10:54 left in the first half. Winder finished with eight points.
  • Abouo notched his second double-double of his career with a team-high 19 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
 
Team Notes
  • Head coach Dave Rose went with a new starting lineup of Craig Cusick, Brock Zylstra, Charles Abouo, Noah Hartsock and Brandon Davies. It is the first lineup change of the year.
  • Six different players hit three-pointers in the first half. Zylstra, Winder, Abouo, Damarcus Harrison, Stephen Rogers and Noah Hartsock
  • Eight different Cougars made three’s in the game when Cusick and Nick Martineau each hit one in the second half.
  • BYU made 15 three-pointers. That is more than double the previous two games where the Cougars made seven treys combined.
  • All 11 players that played in the game scored at least one point.
  • BYU scored 57 points in the second half. It is the first time the Cougars scored over 50 in the second half since last year’s matchup vs. Wyoming when the Cougars scored 64 in the second half.
 
Record Watch
  • Charles Abouo grabbed his 11th rebound with just under 17 minutes left in the game to pass his previous career-high of 10 which he accomplished twice last year. Abouo finished with 16 rebounds.
 
Game Trends
  • After falling behind 10-4, BYU went on a 7-0 run to take a 11-10 lead with 12:30 left in the first half.
  • Longwood cut BYU’s lead to just one point at 22-21 but Anson Winder found a running Brandon Davies for a catch and dunk to put BYU back up by three points with 5:36 left in the first half.
  • Hartsock hit a three-pointer to give BYU its largest lead of the first half at eight points with :55 on the clock. Hartsock was the sixth player of the half to drain a three.
  • BYU’s last field goal of the first half and first field goal of the second half were both three-pointers.
  • The Cougars outscored Longwood 18-6 in the first 6:09 of the second half.
  • Cusick made a three-pointer with 17:36 left in the second half to give BYU its first double-digit lead of the game.

 

BYU head coach Dave Rose
 
“I think that [the 3-pointers] are more like the personality of our team. I’ve been surprised, and I know the players have been surprised, that we haven’t shot as well as we have, but after Tuesday night’s game we spent a big emphasis trying to eliminate the threes that weren’t high percentage shots. I really felt like our guards were patient tonight with that shot.”
 
“The 16 boards were very impressive and something that we really needed from Charles. Charles is a guy who has great athletic ability and we’re playing him in a different role that he’s used to and tonight he really broke out and felt comfortable as a player in the role that we need him to perform in.”
 
“I think we took a lot of steps tonight. We had a lot of players in the game that played well. We’re talking about a lot of new guys who haven’t played in a couple of years and who have been involved with practice and game preparation. I was really pleased with the amount of players that played and their execution.”
 
Longwood head coach Mike Gillian
 
“We need to try to keep those guys from scoring easily inside. We did a great job of that early, doubling the post and making it difficult on them. We had to force them to make some perimeter shots. Now, 6 for 10 in the first half on threes and we’re trailing by six, we feel pretty good right there, but 15 for 26, that’s pretty hard to beat. We were trying to force them to make those perimeter shots, and they did.”