MORAGA, Calif. — As BYU and Saint Mary’s battled Thursday night, Yoeli Childs sat on the Cougar bench in street clothes, including a baseball cap, and sported a splint on his right index finger.
BYU entered its first road game of West Coast Conference play the same way it started the season — without Childs.
Yet the Cougars pushed the Gaels to the brink before losing 87-84 in overtime.
“I’m incredibly proud of our guys. They’re fighting hard and we’re getting better. We just weren’t good enough tonight,” said coach Mark Pope. “I wasn’t good enough tonight, but we’re getting better. I’m so proud of the effort. I’m proud of their fight. We’ve just got to get better.”
Guards TJ Haws and Jake Toolson carried the scoring load with Childs, BYU’s leading scorer, on the bench. Haws poured in a game-high 29 points, including a driving dunk with 6.6 seconds left in regulation that forced the extra period.
“I think they were a little worried about us shooting a 3,” Haws said. “I had two high ball screens and I rejected the screen and I had a lane. I felt good about it.”
BYU trailed by as many as nine in the second half but it outscored Saint Mary’s 7-1 over the final 50 seconds of regulation.
Haws also hit a 3-pointer with 13.1 seconds left in overtime that cut the Cougars’ deficit to 85-84. His 3 with two seconds left in OT bounced off the rim.
“That one hurts. We battled all night but we came up short,” Haws said. “There’s a lot to learn from this game, but I’m proud that we battled to the end.”
“It was a lot of fun. It was a battle back-and-forth between two good teams,” said Toolson, who contributed 24 points and four rebounds. “We just couldn’t get the job done tonight. We gave away too many offensive rebounds and gave them too many extra possessions. Some things didn’t go our way, but I’m proud of the way we battled and fought through it.”
Childs suffered an open dislocation of his right index finger on his shooting hand during practice Tuesday, but his status wasn’t announced until about an hour before tipoff.
Toolson liked the way his team performed despite Childs’ absence.
“We’ve been here before. We’ve played without him before,” Toolson said. “He’s such a great player. We always step up. That’s what we’re going to keep doing.”
With many of the Saint Mary’s fans wearing red “Beat BYU” T-shirts, the Cougars connected on just 6 of 18 3-pointers — their fewest total of the season.
“We’re not a team that’s going to shoot 30 3s regardless of how the defense guards us,” Pope said. “We’re a team that’s going to play this game the right way and dissect what gives us the best advantage in any given game. Saint Mary’s, the way they guarded us tonight, we had opportunities at the rim.”
Saint Mary’s outrebounded BYU 38-32 but the Cougars outscored the Gaels in the paint, 44-34.
SMC guard Jordan Ford finished with 24 points, including four 3-pointers. Three other Gaels scored in double-figures — Malik Fitts (17), Dan Fotu (16) and Tanner Krebs (10).
Saint Mary’s won its sixth consecutive game against BYU at University Credit Union Pavilion in a streak that dates back to 2015.
With the loss the Cougars (12-5, 1-1) drop to 1-8 in Moraga since joining the WCC in 2012. The Gaels improved to 15-3, 2-1.
Childs missed the first nine games of the season due to an NCAA suspension. Since his return, he’s averaged 20.9 points and 10.1 rebounds and moved into the top 10 of all-time scoring leaders in school history.
In Childs’ first game back, at Utah, he scored 29 points and pulled down seven rebounds. However, he sustained leg cramps in the second half, forcing him to miss the final minutes of regulation and the overtime period in a 102-95 setback.
With Childs unavailable Thursday, forward Kolby Lee returned to the starting lineup. Lee went 4 of 4 from the floor and scored nine points and grabbed six rebounds.
Pope said he’s not sure how long his team will be without Childs.
“It’s not new. We expect to be able to win with the team we have. That’s our job. We don’t have any time to think about anything else. We just fell a little bit short tonight against a really good team,” Pope said. “Yoeli Childs is such a champ. This setback is brutally painful for him because he wants so bad to help his guys. He’s already had to sit on the side for a little bit this year. Our hearts are with him right now, but we have to go win games. We can’t have Yoeli today and we might not have someone else tomorrow. Our job is to win games.”
BYU hosts Portland Saturday.