Called out by his coach for lackluster defense, BYU’s Connor Harding puts the clamps on USD’s leading scorer in Cougars’ easy win

PROVO — Connor Harding’s toughness was questioned Thursday night by BYU basketball coach Mark Pope.

The sophomore responded brilliantly, helping BYU rally from a slow start to take an eventual 93-70 win over the visiting San Diego Toreros in front of 11,339 fans at the Marriott Center.

Pope told Harding to “man up” because the USD player he was supposed to be guarding, Braun Hartfield, was 4 of 4 from 3-point range. The 6-foot-6 Cougars’ guard immediately tightened his defense to shut down Hartfield the final seven minutes of the first half.

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With the Cougars trailing 28-25 after Hartfield made his fourth triple, BYU (14-5, 3-1) outscored USD 23-8 the remainder of the half to take control and cruised in the second half to their third West Coast Conference win. 

“Yeah, he just called me out,” Harding said of his discussion with Pope. “He was just saying, ‘You are the guy. You gotta respond to this. That’s enough 3s from him.’ I just went out there and tried to respond to what coach wanted me to do. I think that’s kind of what sparked us to go, and also the Quickie Monster (Kolby Lee) over here making shots got us going.”

That run was also sparked by Harding, who immediately hit his first 3-pointer after the harsh words from his coach to tie the game and another trey with a minute remaining in the half. The Cougars closed the first 20 minutes on a 14-2 run, and Harding finished the half with eight points, three rebounds and an assist.

“I am sure it was something genius like, ‘Guard him.’ That’s about as intellectual as we get in our conversations with our players,” Pope said. “This Connor Harding has rung the bell a lot for us. … Connor fixed us in that (Virginia Tech) game defensively and his effort in the last four minutes of the first half, and then extending through the game was so much better than his attention early.”

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Harding’s fellow Idaho product, the 6-9 Lee, also shined for the Cougars. Starting in the place of Yoeli Childs, who missed his third straight game with a finger injury, the sophomore was 4 of 4 from the field and 4 of 6 from the free-throw line for 12 points in the first half and finished with a career-high 21 points on 8 of 8 shooting from the field.

It was Lee’s ninth game scoring in double figures.

San Diego, still winless in WCC play (0-5, year 7-13) after losing four top-notch seniors from last year’s stellar squad, made things interesting in the first half, thanks to Hartfield, a 6-6 junior transfer from Youngstown State. 

“He is a good player and he certainly was tonight,” Pope said.

But so was Harding.

Once the Cougars — and Harding — figured out how to slow down Hartfield, the rest was easy. Hartfield finished with a team-high 21 points, but made just one of his final four 3-point attempts and was 6 of 14 from the field.

Harding had 11 points, one of six Cougars in double figures for the second straight game.

“Basketball is a game of runs, and you just have to fight through frustration,” Harding said. “We just got some stops and we just made some plays. The biggest thing was just getting control of the tempo of the game, eventually. ... We were slow out of the gates, but we found some energy and some force and that’s what changed the atmosphere of the game.”

That and a little chewing out from the coach.