When he’s confident in catching and shooting, he’s one of the best shooters we have on our team. Everyone has a lot of confidence in him. He’s going to have a lot more big games for us this year. – Tyler Haws, on Jake Toolson
PROVO — As the clock ticked down at the end of a lopsided game against Southern Virginia, BYU freshman Jake Toolson, knowing his team was sitting at 98 points, spotted up and drilled a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining.
It capped an impressive performance for Toolson in the Cougars’ 101-48 victory Wednesday night at the Marriott Center before a crowd of 13,099.
With the win, BYU improved to 3-0, while Southern Virginia fell to 1-1.
What did coach Dave Rose say to Toolson about that final shot?
“I don’t know. He didn’t say anything. He’s happy we won,” Toolson said. “But (assistant) coach (Mark) Pope came up to me and said I’m a dork. I was feeling it tonight. I knew we were at 98 and I was behind the line. I just let it fly.”
Toolson scored a career-high and game-high 15 points, pulled down seven rebounds, dished out four assists and recorded four steals in 25 minutes of action. All of his points came from the 3-point line on 5-of-8 shooting.
The bad news for BYU was that the rest of the team was 0 of 13 from behind the arc.
“Jake actually got the most minutes and he made great use of those minutes. He was the only one to hit a 3 for us,” said Rose. “He had five of them. I really liked other parts of his game. His floor game in general was good. Defensively, he’s getting better and learning our system a little bit better. He rebounded the ball, assisted the ball, shot the ball. The only way you can really gain confidence in your ability to play is to be successful. That was good for him.”
Toolson showed off his repertoire, including a nice alley-oop pass to Josh Sharp for a dunk, and a nifty behind-the-back pass to freshman Dalton Nixon for a layup.
As for Toolson’s 3-pointer just before the buzzer, Rose said, “The students obviously wanted him to shoot it. Young guys will learn. … You want to play to the very end and you want them to be competitive. That play is probably more out of reaction. A guy went for a steal, and Jake grabbed it. We’ll learn from it.”
“The whole place wanted him to shoot that last 3,” said guard Tyler Haws, who finished with 13 points. “When he’s confident in catching and shooting, he’s one of the best shooters we have on our team. Everyone has a lot of confidence in him. He’s going to have a lot more big games for us this year.”
Guard Kyle Collinsworth, who underwent knee surgery last March, did not play Wednesday as a precautionary measure. Guard Skyler Halford, who started in place of Collinsworth, injured his hip early in the game and played just two minutes.
Early on, this matchup resembled a glorified church ball game, marked by sloppy and physical play. The Cougars jumped out on top 17-4 in the opening minutes, but the Knights trailed by just 21-17 with nine minutes left in the first half.
Toolson hit three 3-pointers during a 28-5 run before halftime as BYU took a 49-22 halftime lead.
In the second half, the Cougars outscored the Knights 52-26.
“It’s about getting better every single game, and I thought we got better tonight,” Haws said.
The game was BYU’s final tune-up before playing San Diego State in the Maui Invitational next Monday night. The team leaves for Hawaii Thursday.
BYU ha seven players score in double figures, including Isaac Neilson (13), Nixon (10), Anson Winder (10), Chase Fischer (10) and Luke Worthington (12). For Neilson and Worthington, those figures marked career highs.
TIP-INS: Haws is four points shy of his 2,000th point in BYU history. Only five Cougars have eclipsed the 2,000-point mark. … Haws did score in double figures for the 51st time, tying him third all time with Devin Durrant. … Southern Virginia shot 29 percent from the field. ... BYU's 17 steals tied for second-most in a single game in team history. … Jordan Ellis played for the first time as a Cougar Wednesday night and scored two points.