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After sweeping its Southern California street journey towards two of the weakest West Coast Convention groups, BYU has its sights set on dealing with among the finest groups within the WCC, this time in Northern California.
The Cougars have a bye Thursday earlier than visiting No. 22 Saint Mary’s on Saturday.
This banged-up BYU crew is very happy to have additional time to organize for the Gaels.
Whereas the Cougars (19-8, 7-5) snapped a four-game shedding streak this weekend, they struggled at instances, notably on the defensive finish.
BYU needed to rally from a 17-point second-half deficit to beat Loyola Marymount 83-82 in extra time Thursday, after which Saturday at Pepperdine, the Cougars have been locked in a battle with the last-place Waves for a lot of the recreation earlier than hanging on to win 91-85.
“We simply did what we needed to do. In some methods, we bought higher. In some methods, we’ve actually bought to get higher,” stated coach Mark Pope of the weekend’s outcomes.
“We bought extra productive on the offensive finish. On the defensive finish, we clearly have some work that we have to deal with. We'll.”
BYU allowed each LMU and Pepperdine to shoot effectively above their season averages. The Waves shot 59% towards the Cougars, and freshman guard Houston Mallette scored 31 factors on 9 of 11 capturing.
Nonetheless, BYU was capable of get again to successful.
“It provides us the chance to have a very large recreation on Saturday. That’s an enormous deal,” Pope stated.
“Hopefully, we've got some guys that may get wholesome and we will refine some issues earlier than a very big recreation. Each recreation is big. That is the following big one — at Saint Mary’s on Saturday.”
Freshman Fousseyni Traore didn't play at Pepperdine attributable to harm. His standing is unsure.
“We don’t know. We’ll see. I’m going to hope daily,” Pope stated of Traore. “I don’t know the way a lot that hope daily will do, however we’ll see … I wish to have a few guys extra wholesome.
“Let’s hope we will get there. We simply need to handle no matter it's. We’ll determine it out.”
Towards the Waves, Alex Barcello poured in a career-high 33 factors on 10 of 12 capturing from the ground, together with 9 of 10 from 3-point vary.
“We turned the ball over like loopy (18 turnovers) however our help numbers are actually good for 2 straight video games,” Pope stated. “That’s an enormous a part of what we’re imagined to be.
“I’m actually happy with how our guys bought again to sharing the ball and making performs for one another. There’s a number of guys making an attempt to make performs for one another. Alex was the beneficiary of a few of that, and a few of that was he was only a actually, actually good basketball participant (Saturday).”
Regardless of Saturday’s win, BYU dropped three spots to No. 51 within the NCAA’s NET rankings. The Cougars’ NCAA Event hopes are precarious.
In fact, a win at Saint Mary’s can be an enormous increase to BYU’s match resume. Within the earlier assembly in Provo on Jan. 8, the Cougars beat the Gaels 52-43.
Saint Mary’s (20-6, 8-3) is coming off a 74-58 loss at No. 2 Gonzaga Saturday. The Gaels host San Francisco Thursday earlier than welcoming BYU to Moraga.
“I’m actually wanting ahead to it,” Barcello stated of the Saint Mary’s recreation. “I’m beginning to consider it as a result of we’re on to the following one. So glad we gained these two but it surely’s on to the following.
“Saint Mary’s is a very good crew. They’re enjoying actually good basketball proper now. They held Gonzaga to 74 tonight. We’ve bought to return ready. It’s going to be a battle. We’re combating for our lives proper now.”
After Saturday’s win, Barcello described what his crew’s been by means of the previous few weeks.
“It was horrible to lose, I’ll let you know that. There was a number of soul-searching; a number of regrouping as a crew,” he stated. “If you lose 4 video games in a row, you lose some confidence. You begin to query issues.
“However having the ability to regroup and get a street sweep like this — we didn’t win by as a lot as we wished to, however a win’s a win on the finish of the day. It’s going to offer us a great push going into Saint Mary’s subsequent week. That’s what we want. We have to get again to work on Monday. We have to relaxation up (Sunday), get again to work, watch the movie the place we made errors on the defensive finish and be capable to guard towards Saint Mary’s.”
BYU (19-8, 7-5) at Saint Mary’s (20-6, 8-3)
Saturday, 8 p.m. MST
College Credit score Union Pavilion
TV: ESPN
Radio: BYU Radio/1160 AM