STOCKTON, Calif. — With guard Anson Winder sidelined due to injury, BYU found itself shorthanded Thursday night against Pacific.
But guard Kyle Collinsworth was one of several Cougars to pick up the slack in a big way. Collinsworth recorded his fourth triple-double of the year — tying a single-season NCAA record — as the Cougars remained perfect on the road in West Coast Conference play with a 93-80 victory over the Tigers at the Spanos Center.
With 3:18 remaining in the game, Collinsworth secured his 10th rebound to notch his 4th triple-double of the season. He scored 17 points and dished out 11 assists and finished with 11 rebounds.
“He was good tonight. He had to be good," said coach Dave Rose. "He and Anson are pretty tight. When Anson realized this morning he wouldn’t be able to play, Kyle — and all the guys — knew they were going to have to step it up. We got really good play from everybody, the whole bench.”
Collinsworth joined elite company. Others to accomplish the four triple-double feat were Michael Anderson (Drexel 1985-86), Brian Shaw (UCSB 1987-88), Jason Kidd (Cal 1993-94), and Stephane Lasme (UMass 2006-07).
"Credit to my teammates, credit to the coaches," Collinsworth said of his latest triple-double. "I just tried playing my hardest and playing my type of game. With the great shooters we have and the chemistry we have, and the effort I put in every game, it just works out that I get triple-doubles sometimes.”
Also for BYU, Tyler Haws poured in 26 points, Chase Fischer had 18, including five 3-pointers, and Skyler Halford, who started in place of Winder, chipped in 15, including three 3-pointers.
“When you’ve got leaders like the three captains, Chase and Kyle and Ty, playing the way they were, not just how effective they were but how consistent and how emotional, playing with urgency, led to a whole group of guys putting up a pretty good fight tonight," Rose said.
Collinsworth brings more than what the stat sheet shows, Fischer said.
“It’s such a luxury to play with a player who does so much — his great vision, rebounding and scoring," Fischer said. "He does it all. He’s a really great player. Even more, he’s a great person and a really good leader for our team … He’s almost going to get a triple-double (every game), that’s kind of what we expect. But his intangibles are what make him a special player.”
Winder, BYU’s second-leading scorer, was on the bench in street clothes nursing a knee injury aggravated last weekend against Loyola Marymount.
What was the team's mindset when they found out Winder would not play earlier in the day?
“Just play hard," Collinsworth said. "It’s always a grind up here (at Pacific). It’s a game you’re expected to win, you should win. It’s kind of like all the pressure’s on us. So it’s a tough game. We pulled through. We got some big stops on defense and pulled away with it.”
The foul-plagued Cougars relied on reserves to step up, and they did.
BYU (15-5, 5-2) opened up a 12-point lead early in the second half, but it had a tough time pulling away from Pacific (9-9, 1-5) until late in the game. The Tigers cut the deficit to 61-57, with 10:30 remaining.
But the Cougars gradually built their lead back up thanks to a pair of Fischer 3-pointers as part of a 10-0 run that put BYU up 73-59 at the 8:15 mark.
The Cougars’ lead ballooned to 16 points, 80-64, after a 7-0 run, with six minutes remaining.
Halford, making his second start of the season, hit the first basket of the game, a 3-pointer from the corner, to put BYU up 3-0 just seconds into the contest.
The Cougars led the entire first half, thanks to six 3-pointers. Pacific, meanwhile, went 0-of-9 from 3-point range over the first 20 minutes.
While BYU was hitting from outside, the Tigers drove to the hoop with success. Pacific scored 24 of its 34 first-half points in the paint.
As expected, it was a physical game, and the officials whistled 19 fouls in the first half, including 11 against the Cougars. BYU found itself in so much foul trouble — Luke Worthington had three and Chase Fischer and Corbin Kaufusi each had two — that seldom-used players like freshmen Ryan Andrus and Dalton Nixon and senior Josh Sharp saw time in the first half, and each made key contributions.
BYU led 34-30 with just under four minutes remaining in the half when Andrus, who entered the game with five career points, buried his first career 3-pointer.
Then with 90 seconds left, Andrus scored a layup after taking a nifty pass from Collinsworth to kickstart a 6-0 run to end the half. Collinsworth slashed to the hoop for a layup at the buzzer to give BYU its largest lead of the half, 43-34.
At that point, Collinsworth had 12 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals.
The Cougars visit Saint Mary’s Saturday (9 p.m. MST, ESPN2).