BYU basketball bombs away from deep, keeps Nevada off 3-point line in big win

PROVO — Just 12 seconds into the second half, BYU wing Jake Toolson launched a 3-pointer. Swish.

That kind of game for the Cougars.

Toolson totaled 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and Alex Barcello had 13 points and two assists to help BYU cruise past Nevada, 75-42, in front of 10,570 crowd Tuesday night in the Marriott Center.

TJ Haws added 11 points and five assists for the Cougars (8-4) and Conner Harding supplied 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including two of BYU’s 12 3-pointers on the evening for a team that held the Wolf Pack to just 25 percent from the field.

“Good teams find different ways to win,” BYU coach Mark Pope said. “Against UNLV, we won because we made every shot. Tonight, we got to try to win a game a different way. And as we get into league play and the WCC tournament, trust me — we’re going to have to win games a bunch of different ways. The fact that our guys recognize they had that opportunity at halftime, and they had to manage their frustrations at halftime, then came out and did it is a good sign for us.

“We’re making progress. We’re growing. That’s all I can ask of ourselves; I wish we could grow faster, and our guys wish they could grow faster. But I think we’re making good things happen right now.”

Jalen Harris had 15 points and seven rebounds to lead Nevada (7-4) and Lindsey Drew supplied 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting. Former Portland guard Jazz Johnson added 8 points and three rebounds for the Wolf Pack.

On a night when Yoeli Childs shot 0 for 7 in the first half, BYU didn’t look like it needed its star power forward very much. Childs finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds and three assists, including back-to-back buckets to help the Cougars open the second half with a 9-0 run to go up 43-22 just two minutes after halftime.

Childs, Dalton Nixon and Zac Seljaas were held scoreless in the first half, shooting a combined 0 for 13 — but the Cougars led by 12 points.

It wasn’t just the scoring; it was the defense, too.

“We were just working hard every day leading up to the game, and guys were really locked in on who their man was, and their tendencies,” said Barcello, who credited assistant coach Nick Robinson’s game plan for the lockdown defense. “We really came out there and executed it.”

Nevada entered the game ranked eighth nationally with 107 3-pointers made. But the Wolf Pack made just one triple until Lindsey Drew’s 3-pointer with 12:36 left. By then, BYU led 54-29, and the Pack went on to shoot just 3 of 23 from deep.

Meanwhile, BYU — which is ranked No. 3 in the NCAA with 115 3-pointers — couldn’t miss at times. The Cougars lived up to their reputation as sharpshooters in their first home game of the season on an ESPN network, shooting 37 shots from beyond the arc, making 12, and never trailing in the rout.

“I think we had a great game plan. We were locked in,” Toolson said. “We were really just wanting to get stops and that’s how we found some rhythm and juice on the offensive end. We know we’re going to make shots, but if we can lock in defensively, we’re going to be tough to beat.”

For the second straight game, BYU routed a Mountain West opponent by holding them well below their average in shooting. This time, though, BYU shot just 32 percent from the field in the first half, and though the Cougars finished with a respectable 41.2 percent from the field, they had to rely on other areas to win a game.

That should serve them well in preparation for this Saturday, when they will face their third-straight Mountain West opponent — Utah State, which is coming off its 10th win in the first 11 games, the Aggies’ best start since going 14-1 in 2012-13.

“When you have a team that understands the game and comes into the game agenda-free, then you end up getting to what the defense decides they are not going to take away,” Pope said. “That’s when you have the best chance to win. I do believe we can make shots; I think our guys are doing a great job of owning shots.

“If the defense is giving us 3s, we’re going to take them. If they’re spraying out and taking away the 3, then we’ll trust the two-man game inside.”

Next up

BYU plays its second game at Vivint Arena in eight days, when it faces in-state rival Utah State in the third annual Beehive Classic. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. MST Saturday (BYUtv).

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