PROVO — BYU’s West Coast Conference opener Saturday night against Loyola Marymount at the Marriott Center may have looked like an ugly, sloppy game.
But to first-year coach Mark Pope, overall, it was a thing of beauty.
That’s what happens when his team holds an opponent to a total of a mere 38 points — exactly 19 in each half.
While the Cougars managed to score just 41 points through the first 31 minutes of the game, they played a stifling brand of defense against LMU, limiting the Lions to 33% shooting, and ended up earning a 63-38 victory.
“One of the things that we felt early in the season, when shots weren’t falling and we didn’t have a good flow offensively, that it affected us on the defensive end. It didn’t affect us on the defensive end at all tonight,” Pope said. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of our team that those guys, despite the frustration, came and competed on the defensive end every single possession. It’s a beautiful marker for this group of guys this season. If we keep moving in that direction, we have a chance to have a really good team. That gets me really excited. … I want them to feel the unbelievable joy of the accomplishment that they had tonight of guarding every single possession for 40 minutes. It’s really impressive.”
BYU (12-4, 1-0) extended its winning streak to six games and handed LMU (7-9, 1-1) its first league loss.
The Cougars slogged to a 29-26 lead early in the second half before their shots, especially their 3-pointers, started to fall. BYU finished the game on an 18-4 run. The Lions scored just six points over the final seven minutes.
“It was great,” forward Yoeli Childs, who scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to go with two blocked shots, said of his team’s defensive performance. “We were so locked in as a team. It wasn’t about just individual, one-on-one defense. It was being in the gaps, being in help and rotating. We did such a good job of playing together on the defensive end.”
“If we can keep this trend of caring about that end of the ball and not getting distracted by what’s happening on the offensive end, it will bode well for us.” — BYU coach Mark Pope
Guard Jake Toolson, who finished with 13 points, four assists and five steals, liked how his team clamped down defensively even when it wasn’t hitting shots.
“We can’t let what’s happening offensively dictate the energy we have defensively. In this case, we were able to fight through what we were dealing with offensively and just buckle down and get stops. That kind of translated to the other end,” he said. “We tried to take away a lot of the things that they did well and force them to take bad shots and we did a good job of contesting shots in transition.”
Saturday’s outing was the fewest points allowed by a BYU team since giving up 33 points in 2016 against San Diego.
Pope praised the efforts of his team, including Childs and Toolson.
“Jake Toolson, this kid is remarkable because whatever statistical category is important in the moment, he seems to fill it,” Pope said. “Today, he’s got five steals. He’ll be huge on the glass one night. His commitment to that end of the ball was really special.”
Pope said Childs “has the potential to become a great defensive player, and he was a great defensive player the last 10 minutes of this game. We were using two bodies and failing to solve what he solved by himself. We had a lot of guys step up defensively.”
BYU made only 3 of 14 3-pointers in the first half but finished 8 of 24 from distance. The Cougars led 24-19 at halftime.
“If we can keep this trend of caring about that end of the ball and not getting distracted by what’s happening on the offensive end, it will bode well for us,” Pope said.
BYU visits Saint Mary’s next Thursday in its first WCC road trip of the season.
TIP-INS: A moment of silence was held prior to tipoff to honor former BYU coach Ladell Andersen and former Cougar player Roland Minson. Andersen died Sunday at age 90 while Minson passed away Wednesday at age 90. … TJ Haws moved into a tie with Devin Durrant for fourth-most consecutive starts in BYU history with 117. The record of 122 is held by Jeff Chatman. … Childs moved past Mekeli Wesley into ninth place on the school’s all-time scoring list. … Attendance was 12,422.