The BYU men’s basketball team came into Saturday night’s game against the San Francisco Dons not having lost back-to-back games in the regular season during the Mark Pope era.
That trend continued against the Dons. Despite a huge free throw disparity in favor of the Dons and some shaky second-half defense at times, the Cougars overcame it to edge San Francisco, 71-69, to end a stretch of three important games against strong West Coast Conference opponents.
The Cougars went 2-1 in three games against Saint Mary’s, Gonzaga and San Francisco. The lone loss in that stretch was against the Bulldogs, who overwhelmed BYU offensively on Thursday.
But on Saturday, the Cougars showed some grit — a mentality that could help them for the remainder of the WCC season and even in the NCAA Tournament.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our guys, man,” Pope said on CBS Sports Network. “It was just guts. They just fought. They fought, and fought, and fought, and it was beautiful.”
It was a long shot for BYU to beat No. 2 Gonzaga. But for the Cougars to get the St. Mary’s and San Francisco games will likely bode well for their NCAA Tournament resume.
Saint Mary’s is ranked 39th in the NCAA NET rankings, while the Dons are No. 31. BYU, in comparison, is No. 30. But those numbers could change when the rankings get updated to include all of Saturday’s games.
The win over San Francisco is currently considered a Quad 1 victory, which holds the most weight. BYU also ended the Dons’ 11-game home winning streak for good measure.
“It’ll hold some weight down in March,” BYU guard Te’Jon Lucas said.
Dons point guard Jamaree Bouyea missed a game-winning 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded. The Cougars came back from a 10-point deficit in the first half and prevailed over a Dons team that made 24 free throws compared to their 14.
Senior guard Alex Barcello scored 18 points and made three 3-pointers for BYU, while Lucas added 12 points and five assists. Caleb Lohner, who contributed eight points and five rebounds, made big plays down the stretch to help keep San Francisco at bay, the most important of which was an offensive rebounds that led to free throws.
“His toughness was on display tonight,” Pope said of Barcello. On the BYU radio show later, Pope added of Barcello: “He was completely unfazed the entire game. There was a never a moment where got sideways.”
Women’s basketball
The Cougars women won by 40 on Saturday in their 77-37 victory over Loyola Marymount University, bringing their overall record to 14-1 and 4-0 in the West Coast Conference.
“I am very happy with what we are doing,” BYU coach Jeff Judkins said in a news release. “We haven’t shot the ball as well as we can but what is nice about this team is I can go a lot of different ways. I can go aggressive like we did at the start. Or we can go bigger and it makes it challenging for the other team any way we can go.”
Shaylee Gonzales led with 19 points, five assists and five steals. Paisley Harding and Lauren Gustin had 14 points apiece. The Cougars shot 57.1% from the field and amassed 16 steals.
