Player Notes
- Noah Hartsock scored 23 points, including 17 second-half points on 10 of 14 shooting. The senior added 5 boards, 2 blocks, 1 assist and 1 steal.
- Brandon Davies recorded his 8th double-double of the season with 18 points and 15 rebounds. Davies also had 3 steals, 2 blocks and 2 assists.
- Damarcus Harrison came off the bench and scored a career-high 12 points on 4 of 6 shooting including 2 treys. He also added 3 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 assist.
- Craig Cusick tied a career-high with 8 assists off the bench. Cusick also snagged 5 rebounds and had 2 assists.
Team Notes
- Dave Rose went with a starting lineup of Matt Carlino, Brock Zylstra, Charles Abouo, Noah Hartsock and Brandon Davies.
- BYU’s 25-point comeback was the largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history. The previous record was a 22-point by Duke over Maryland in the 2001 Final Four.
- BYU held Iona scoreless for 9:16 in the second half during BYU’s 17-0 run to get back into the game.
- After Iona scored 55 points on 59 percent (24 of 41) shooting in the first half, the Cougars turned up the defense and held the Gaels to just 17 second-half points on 24.1 percent (7 of 29) shooting. It was the first time since the 2009-10 season that BYU held a team to below 20 points in a second half.
- With the win, BYU has won at least 1 NCAA Tournament game in 3-straight years. BYU beat Florida in the 2010 NCAA’s and then won two games in 2011 against Wofford and Gonzaga to advance to the Sweet Sixteen in last year’s tournament.
Game Trends
- Both teams came out looking to run and Iona took an early 15-10 lead in the first 5 minutes of play. Iona continued on a 15-0 run, taking a 28-10 lead with 12:02 remaining in the half.
- A Nate Austin 3-pointer cut the lead back to 10 points but the Gaels went on another run, pushing the lead back to a game-high lead of 25 at 49-24.
- Once down by 25, BYU used a 9-0 run at the end of half to head into the locker room down 55-40.
- Zylstra hit a 3-point jumper and Hartsock made 3 baskets in a row as part of a 17-0 Cougar run to cut the lead to just 1 point at 62-61 with under 9 minutes to play.
- Hartsock drained a 3-pointer as part of a personal 7-0 run to give BYU its first lead of the game at 71-70 with 2:26 left in the game.
- Following a Brandon Davies block and rebound, Zylstra completed a 3-point play to give BYU a 76-70 lead with 23 seconds left in the game. The Cougars would hang on 78-72 for the win, overcoming a 25-point deficit.
Record Watch
- Charles Abouo played in the 113th victory of his career to surpass Jimmer Fredette as the player to have played in the most wins in program history. Fredette played in 112 from 2007 to 2011.
- Abouo also broke a tie with Fredette (139) for career games played in at 140. Abouo has played in every game in his career to give him the program record for consecutive games played in.
Quotes
BYU Coach Dave Rose
"We got a big win. And I'm really happy for our players. What an exciting game. I thought that the first 15 minutes of that game were really fast‑paced and Iona was really good. It was hard for us to even catch them. They're good in transition. They were really active defensively. We turned the ball over. They were good after we made baskets. They raced it back on us and scored."
"We had to make some real adjustments defensively in those first 15 minutes and it didn't pay off until later. We started sending three back to try to slow down their break. But those guards are really good. They're fast. They're talented as far as their ability to drive the ball, score the ball, dish the ball, shoot the ball."
"So it was tough. It was tough for us early. And the start of the second half, kind of the same way, where we turned it over. But our guys fought. We fought hard. We fought all game long."