San Francisco 80, BYU 70
SAN FRANCISCO — It wasn't like BYU was playing against some sort of national power Thursday night, even if there were those NCAA championship banners and retired numbers of Bill Russell and K.C. Jones hovering above in the rafters of War Memorial Gym.
The University of San Francisco basketball team that took the court against the Cougars was so depleted with injuries with five players out already this year, it was down to seven scholarship players total. Heck, the Dons were so desperate, they even had gone to the baseball team to find backup point guard Nick Tarbat, who played his first game Thursday night and logged 16 solid minutes.
Yet the foul-plagued, cold-shooting Cougars couldn't keep up with the undermanned Dons, who won 80-70, pinning the first loss on BYU (2-1) this year, while improving to 3-3 with the victory.
BYU was a dreadful 3 of 19 from 3-point range and the Cougars had no answer for USF's Ali Thomas, who came in as the Dons' fifth-leading scorer and left with a career-high 25 points on 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range. The Cougs also committed 29 fouls and had three players, Eric Nielsen, Jacob Chrisman and Dan Howard, foul out.
"It was a combination of things tonight, it was not any one thing," said BYU coach Steve Cleveland. "We did a poor job of defending and let their point guard go for a career high. The big thing is we go 3-for-19 from 3-point range and most of them were wide open. You have to knock the shots down. And San Francisco played well, give them credit."
Thomas is a senior guard who has been forced to play the point with USF's other three point guards all out with injuries. He had a height advantage over BYU's Matt Montague and took advantage with some pinpoint shooting from the outside.
The Dons also had four other players in double figures — Darrell Tucker with 16, James Lee with 14, Hondre Brewer with 11 and Tayo Akinsete with 10. Beside shooting 51.2 percent from the field, the Dons made 80 percent — 32 of 40 — from the foul line, thanks to the generosity of the fouling Cougars.
"We got in such a hole early in the game with our fouls, it took us out of the flow of the game," said Cleveland. "They pretty much dictated the flow of the whole game. We didn't do a very good job of making stops. They made the big hustle plays."
The biggest hustle play and perhaps the key of the whole game came with 6:22 left. Lee was at the foul line after getting loose on the baseline for a spectacular dunk to put the Dons up by three. He missed his free throw, but grabbed his own rebound on the right side of the lane and put the ball back in to make it 64-59.
"That was a huge play," said Cleveland. "It went from one point to five points over a little thing like not blocking out."
"That kind of broke their back," added USF coach Philip Mathews.
USF led pretty much the whole game, but BYU came back to lead 32-30 with 2:39 left in the half. That's when Akinsete hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Dons the lead for good.
BYU was led by Mekeli Wesley with 20 points, including 12 of 12 from the foul line, 16 from Terrell Lyday, despite a horrendous 4 of 17 from the field, and 12 from Montague. However, the Cougars got little from anyone else, especially starting forward Nielsen, who couldn't stay in the game.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Nielsen, who hails from nearby Fremont and had several family members and friends in attendance. But the game was a disaster for him personally as he finished with almost as many fouls (5) as minutes (8) because of his foolish defense.
Only nine seconds into the game, Nielsen picked up his first foul and followed with another 43 seconds into the game. Just like that he was on the bench. He returned for three more minutes late in the half but didn't score.
In the second half, Nielsen picked up his third foul in the first minute and followed with No. 4 two minutes later and sat out until the 10:22 mark. Upon returning to the game, it took Nielsen all of five seconds — FIVE SECONDS — to foul out of the game with his fifth foul.
"I feel bad for Eric Nielsen," said Cleveland. "Those were almost incidental fouls on Eric. But he's going to have to learn to adapt."
Lyday kept firing at will all night, but the problem was he kept missing. When asked if Lyday has the green light to shoot, Cleveland replied, "Tonight he had so many open looks that it was hard to tell him not to shoot it. But if he keeps shooting like this, we'll make it a yellow light."
Things get even tougher for the Cougars who flew today to Arizona, where they'll take on 4-1 Arizona State Saturday night in Tempe. USF meets Fresno State Saturday night at home.
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