Player Notes
- Brock Zylstra scored 15 points to go along with 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block and 1 steal. Zylstra has had at least 1 steal in every game this year.
- Noah Hartsock recorded back-to-back double-doubles. This time Hartsock had a double-double by the end of the first half with 14 points and 10 rebounds. He finished with 19 points and 12 boards. Hartsock also blocked 3 shots for the fifth time this year.
- Nate Austin hit another 3-pointer to give the big man treys in 3-straight games. Austin finished with a career-high 15 points and career-high 9 boards.
- Stephen Rogers came off the bench and scored 10 points in a row for BYU in the second half. He finished with 15 points.
- Craig Cusick dished out a career-high 8 assists.
Team Notes
- Head coach Dave Rose went with the starting lineup of Anson Winder, Brock Zylstra, Charles Abouo, Noah Hartsock and Brandon Davies.
- BYU already had three players in double figures in the first half. Hartsock had 14, Zylstra with 13 and Davies with 11.
- The Cougars scored 47 points in the first half for its highest first half point total of the season. The second half featured a matching 47 points.
- BYU blocked 7 shots in the first half to tie a season high for blocks in an entire game. The team blocked 9 shots for the game to set a new season high.
- Six players scored in double figures for the first time since Fresno Pacific in the 2010-11 season. Hartsock led with 19 and Rogers, Abouo, Zylstra and Austin each had 15 points apiece while and Davies had 11 points.
Game Trends
- BYU jumped out to a 7-2 lead before Weber State answered back with an 8-0 run to take the lead 10-7 at the 15:02 mark.
- Zylstra knocked down a jumper to make it 13-12 to reclaim the lead with 12:51 left in the first half. BYU would continue on a 13-3 run with Zylstra knocking down his second trey to go up 22-15 with 10:14 remaining in the half.
- Davies made a layup and the free throw for a 3-point play to give BYU a 40-24 lead during a 11-2 run with 4:20 left in the first half.
- BYU came out in the second half knocking down 3 treys in a row to take a 20-point lead at 56-36 with 16:41 on the clock.
- Rogers scored 10 in a row including a one-handed dunk to give BYU a 79-50 lead with 7:26 left in the game.
- Austin made a strong layup to give BYU a 92-64 lead with just over 1 minute remaining and followed it up with a dunk in the final Cougar possession to cap the 94-66 victory.
Head coach Dave Rose
“We were playing a very, very good Weber State team. As you try to build your team, the last two nights, for us as coaches, effort has been the story line. We’ve made a lot of mistakes but we executed well enough with the effort we were playing with. We still have a long ways to go to get better. We’re starting to figure out how hard we need to play and how consistent our effort needs to be throughout the game. We’ll look forward to the game on Saturday.”
“Our guys know what it’s like to play with the leading scorer in the country and tonight they were ready. (Lillard) is a terrific player. We challenged his shots. The shots he made were difficult shots. We gave him a few too many chances where he had guys he could dish the ball to. I was really impressed with how consistently we were able to make the game hard for him.”
Head coach Randy Rahe
“They did a really good job on Damien. They’re big, they’re strong and they’re old. Their length also made it really hard for us.”
“We knew it was going to be tough and we needed to rebound with them. I feel that we did a pretty good job with that. But, they are a really good basketball team. It was hard to keep up and we were really low energy tonight. They are just a tremendous team.”
“They have some veteran guys on the team who really know how to run the ball. They’re also really big and we didn’t have an answer for them on the inside. You can’t double the post. Every team that has doubled the post has just gotten demolished.”
(On Lillard) “They stayed with him and trapped him. They gave him a lot of attention with great length and great size. I don’t think Damian forced much but I thought defensively they played really solid and were very aware of him and where he was on the court.”