St. Mary’s Gaels heart Mitchell Saxen (11) and Brigham Younger Cougars guard Dallin Corridor (30) wrestle for the ball as BYU and St. Mary’s play on the Marriott Middle in Provo on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023. The Gaels gained 57-56. Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
Heading into the ultimate month of the common season, BYU is caught in a three-game shedding skid.
The Cougars posted a 2-5 report within the month of January, are tied for sixth place within the West Coast Convention standings, and have a shedding report (4-5) in league play.
However amid troublesome circumstances, coach Mark Pope is hopeful that his workforce can persevere and proceed to enhance within the month of February.
BYU is coming off a bitter setback — Saturday’s 57-56 loss to No. 22 Saint Mary’s — in one other basic recreation within the rivalry between the Gaels. It was the ultimate WCC matchup between the 2 packages in Provo.
Saint Mary’s freshman guard Aidan Mahaney knocked down a game-winning, fade-away jumper with three-tenths of a second remaining.
Fairly a gut-punch of a going-away current from Saint Mary’s to BYU, which joins the Huge 12 subsequent season.
“It’s tremendous painful,” Pope mentioned.
Sure, January was a tough month for the Cougars, who're seeing their postseason hopes dwindle. Additionally they misplaced a one-point recreation to then-No. 8 Gonzaga on a 3-pointer within the ultimate seconds on the Marriott Middle on Jan. 12.
Subsequent up is a house recreation Thursday (7 p.m. MST, CBS Sports activities Community) in opposition to Loyola Marymount, which defeated BYU 64-59 in Los Angeles on Jan. 5.
On Jan. 20, the Lions upset then-No. 6 Gonzaga 68-67, shattering the Zags’ 75-game dwelling successful streak.
LMU (16-7, 6-3) is in third place within the WCC. The Lions have gained 4 video games in a row, together with Saturday’s 84-70 victory over Pepperdine.
“It doesn’t get any simpler,” mentioned Pope, whose workforce is ranked No. 94 within the NCAA’s NET rankings. “We’ve simply received to get higher. We don’t have the luxurious of feeling sorry for ourselves. We simply don’t have that luxurious. We're definitely in somewhat little bit of a gap.
“However I feel we’re tremendous optimistic that we will preserve getting higher. There’s lots of season left. And there’s nonetheless every part on the desk. We’ve received to get higher. That’s all our guys are fascinated by — how can we get higher? That’s the place we’re going to reside.”
Saturday in opposition to Saint Mary’s, BYU was with out starter Jaxson Robinson and reserves Atiki Ally Atiki and Noah Waterman, who didn't play as a result of they broke a workforce rule. Freshman Richie Saunders began rather than Robinson in opposition to the Gaels.
Robinson, Ally Atiki and Waterman are anticipated to return to motion in opposition to LMU.
After the sport, Pope fielded a few questions on these absences, however he didn’t need to deal with that subject.
“I’m tremendous emotional. We simply had eight dudes battle like loopy in heroic trend. What are we speaking about right here?” he mentioned. “We had some particular guys put up particular performances. Let’s speak about that.”
A kind of particular performances got here from freshman guard Dallin Corridor, who poured in a career-high 23 factors on 9 of 14 capturing from the sphere. Corridor additionally contributed 4 rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block. Coming into the night time, Corridor was averaging 6.8 factors per recreation.
Pope did acknowledge that some gamers needed to play totally different positions with Robinson, Ally Atiki and Waterman unavailable. For the Cougars, would being at full power have made a distinction in opposition to Saint Mary’s? That’s laborious to say due to how properly Corridor performed.
BYU may have used the scale and size of the 6-foot-10 Ally Atiki and the 6-foot-11 Waterman, however the Cougars nonetheless managed to out-rebound the Gaels 33-25.
In the meantime, Fousseyni Traore had 11 factors and eight rebounds and Spencer Johnson added 9 factors, together with three 3-pointers. Trey Stewart got here off the bench, scored two factors and grabbed two rebounds and offered a spark. Chaminade switch Tredyn Christensen added a basket as properly.
Pope was happy with the best way his workforce matched Saint Mary’s physicality.
“We didn’t handle it early very properly,” he mentioned. “We adjusted to it a lot better as the sport went on. … This Saint Mary’s workforce is nice. They’re undefeated in our league and so they’re the No. 6 defensive workforce within the nation. They’re good at what they do. Our guys had been actually good for essentially the most half. We’re only one possession not fairly ok but. That's such a brutal actuality of this recreation.”
One of many positives for the Cougars — they'd solely 12 turnovers in opposition to the Gaels. Final weekend, BYU had 34 turnovers mixed in losses at Santa Clara and San Francisco.
Pope emphasised that his gamers “are dedicated. We’ll sit on this room and really feel loads totally different in enormous methods if we preserve pounding away. That’s laborious to do. … There’s a lot progress that should happen.”
Extra challenges lie forward, with dwelling video games in opposition to LMU, Santa Clara (Feb. 16) and San Francisco (Feb. 25). And BYU nonetheless has to make journeys to Gonzaga (Feb. 11) and Saint Mary’s (Feb. 18).
The WCC event ideas off on March 2. The Cougars are hoping to keep away from the dreaded Thursday first-round video games for groups seeded 7-10. That’s one thing BYU has by no means skilled in its 12 years within the WCC.
As robust as the previous few weeks have been for his workforce, Pope stays optimistic that good issues are in retailer so long as it continues to persevere.
“The karma of this recreation catches up. If we preserve pounding on this wall, we’re going to interrupt by means of,” he mentioned. “And once you do, with this younger group, this group has an opportunity to be actually particular. That’s depending on us (to) preserve pounding away. And it’s laborious proper now.”
Loyola Marymount (16-7, 6-3) at BYU (14-10, 4-5)
Thursday, 7 p.m. MST
Marriott Middle
TV: CBS Sports activities Community
Radio: BYU Radio/1160 AM