FILE - BYU Cougars ahead Atiki Ally Atiki (4) drives towards Westminster Griffins ahead/heart Trey Farrer (21) through the recreation at Vivint Enviornment in Salt Lake Metropolis on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022. Ally Atiki scored a career-high 12 factors in a. win over San Diego. Spenser Heaps, Deseret Information
SAN DIEGO — Because of a 68-48 trouncing of San Diego Saturday at Jenny Craig Pavilion, BYU break up its Southern California highway journey after falling Thursday at Loyola Marymount.
The Cougars (13-6, 3-1) return house with a showdown towards No. 9 Gonzaga Thursday (7:30 p.m. MST, ESPN) and they're going to host Pepperdine Saturday.
“I really feel like everybody will be ok with themselves, get up (Sunday) and Monday once we get to the ability, we’ll concentrate on Gonzaga coming into city,” mentioned guard Rudi Williams, who scored 13 towards the Toreros.
Thursday marks the ultimate time BYU and the Zags will sq. off on the Marriott Middle in a West Coast Convention contest.
Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s stay the one unbeaten groups in WCC play whereas BYU and Pacific have one loss every.
“I believe we’re the one group within the league that’s had three of their first 4 video games on the highway,” mentioned coach Mark Pope. “For a younger group, that’s actually onerous. It’s onerous to be on the highway for 3 of your first 4. For these guys to go 3-1 — it’s not excellent however I’m actually happy with them. They’ve gained eight of 9 (video games). That’s one thing for this group. That’s an enormous accomplishment for this group.”
One Cougar that has made huge strides this season is 6-foot-10 ahead Atiki Ally Atiki, who scored a career-high 12 factors towards San Diego.
The sophomore made 4 of 6 photographs from the sector and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line to go together with one blocked shot, three rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes of motion.
Pope is happy with Ally Atiki’s progress on each side of the ground.
“What Atiki has actually finished defensively proper now, we’ve actually challenged our two 5s to begin switching quite a bit, guarding level guards and two-guards. His effort was actually phenomenal. He was terrific,” he mentioned.
“He made easy choices within the submit. For probably the most half, he was rolling actually onerous and catching balls. We’re utilizing Atiki proper now as a key level in our primary transition offense … He’s grown a lot and we’ll see him proceed to take huge jumps as a result of in some areas, he’s grown a lot that there’s a few areas which might be holding him again so we don’t see all of that but. However I used to be tremendous happy with him.”
Atiki hails from Tanzania. His host household from Canada attended each of BYU’s video games over the weekend to look at him play.
“I do know it’s actually essential for him to play effectively,” Pope mentioned. “They’ve been so essential to him. It was superior for him to try this in entrance of them.”
Two of probably the most memorable performs Saturday at San Diego had been alley-oop dunks by Atiki on passes from Jaxson Robinson.
“His aerial recreation is admittedly essential for us. After (former BYU participant) Gavin (Baxter) went down final yr, it was the primary time we hadn’t had an aerial recreation. To begin to get that again into the sport is admittedly essential for us as a result of it makes the scout totally different,” Pope mentioned.
“When you must account for that, and it’s in your thoughts, it opens up a lot. Our guys have gotten extra comfy throwing it to him, which actually isn’t that sophisticated since you throw it anyplace inside 10 toes of the ring and he’s going to go get it. He’s turn out to be actually comfy catching the ball. We’ve seen him end within the air quite a bit. His poise goes to proceed to develop and I assumed he was terrific.”