BYU at San Diego box score
BYU at San Diego postgame notes and quotes

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Tyler Haws's 27 points were not enough to finish a BYU second half comeback as the Cougars fell to San Diego 74-68 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on Thursday night.

"Tonight they (San Diego) were good," said BYU head coach Dave Rose. "There are a lot of issues for us that we need to correct but you have to give credit to San Diego for the plays, the big plays, they made to hold us back. We got into trouble at the start of the second half but tried to make a comeback. Playing from behind, you can't make the mistakes we made."

BYU (18-7, 8-3) dropped its second conference match on the road as San Diego (13-12, 6-4) won its ninth home game of the season.

Early in the game, Matt Carlino and Tyler Haws traded baskets back and forth to give BYU a 12-8 lead. Maintaining a fast pace, BYU began to pull away early in the first half going on an 8-2 run. Carlino stole the ball in the backcourt and sent a transition pass to Haws who slammed home a dunk to extend the Cougars’ lead to 18-10 with 12:07 remaining in the first half.

San Diego battled back going on a 10-2 run capped by a Johnny Dee baseline jumper to tie the score at 20 apiece. Haws answered back for the Cougars to end the run with a big 3-pointer to extend the BYU lead to 23-20 with 8:09 remaining in the first half.

Both teams continued to trade points back and forth late in the first half. Ambrosino hit a three from the left arc to put BYU up by one, 32-31 with 3:20 remaining in the first half, before Dennis Kramer answered with back-to-back jumpers to extend the Toreros lead to 35-32.

San Diego finished the half with a 40-36 lead after Chris Manresa converted a layup with 33 seconds remaining.

In the second half, Brandon Davies came out strong stuffing a big dunk with 17:03 remaining to bring the Cougars within five, down 46-41. San Diego continued its strong offensive play piecing together a 7-1 run capped off by a Jito Kok jumper go up by 11, 53-42, the largest lead of the game for the Toreros.

BYU battled back as Davies went to work one-on-one with Kramer, scoring eight-straight points to bring the Cougars within three, down 56-53 with just over nine minutes remaining in regulation.

Down by seven, Haws began to take over for the Cougars, keeping them within striking distance with back-to-back layups. Haws hit two free throws at the 3:32 mark to bring the Cougars within 3 at 67-64, but the Cougars couldn’t generate enough offense down the stretch. Dee hit three free throws late in the game to all but end BYU’s comeback hopes and seal the victory for the Toreros.

BYU returns home on Saturday hosting San Francisco at 7 p.m. MST in the Marriott Center. The game will be televised on BYUtv and broadcast on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM and 1160 AM.

Game notes: BYU at San Diego

BYU basketball will look to extend its winning streak to four games when the Cougars play at San Diego on Thursday at 7 p.m. PST. The game will be broadcast on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM and 1160 AM and televised on BYUtv.

BYU Cougars (18-6, 8-2 WCC)

• Head Coach: Dave Rose
• Alma Mater: Houston, 1983
• Division I Career Record: 203-60 (8th)
• Record at BYU: Same

San Diego (12-12, 5-4 WCC)

• Head Coach: Bill Grier
• Alma Mater: Oregon, 1990
• Division I Career Record: 80-105 (6th)
• Record at San Diego: Same

Player and team notes

• Dave Rose earned his 200th career victory with a 74-57 win over San Diego on Jan. 19, 2013. Stan Watts is the only other coach in BYU history with 200-plus wins. Watts won his 200th game during his 12th season at the helm on Feb. 2, 1961 at New Mexico. It was his 329th career game (Watts’ career record was 371-254 in 23 seasons). Rose is in his eighth season and earned win number 200 in his 259th game.
• Tyler Haws has scored 20-plus points 16 times this season. He opened the year with six-straight 20-point games and later had a streak of seven-consecutive 20-point games.
• Matt Carlino has scored in double figures in 10-straight games (all WCC games), a career-best streak. During that stretch he is averaging 17.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 3.0 steals while shooting .463 from the field, .400 from three and .771 from the free throw line. His assist to turnover ratio during that time is 2.2 to 1.
• BYU has completed four comebacks after trailing at the half this season. The Cougars trailed Utah and San Francisco by nine at the half and won 61-58 and 80-76. BYU trailed Pepperdine by five at the half at home and came back to win 76-51. The Cougars trailed at Pepperdine 31-20 but bounced back in the second half to win 63-61.
• BYU’s 96 points scored against Santa Clara on Feb. 2 are the most scored by the Cougars in a WCC game since joining the league last season. The previous high was 95 in a home game against Santa Clara in 2012. BYU also shot a season-best 58.3 percent against the Broncos while hitting 55.6 percent in the first half and 60.6 percent in the second half.
• BYU has been a better shooting team since starting league play. The Cougars are shooting better from the field (.480 in WCC play to .450 in nonconference games) and from three (.379 to .315). BYU has also shown big improvements in the steals category, increasing its per game average from 8.4 per game in non-league games to 9.7 per game in WCC games. At 8.96 steals per game in all games, the Cougars are on pace to set the program record for steals per game and steals in a season.
• Tyler Haws has shot 100 percent from the line while attempting at least 10 free throws in three games this season, tied with Russell Larson (1993-94) and Ken Roberts (1994-95) for most perfect days from the line (minimum of 10 attempts) in a season with three. Haws has four such games in his career, tied for the most in BYU history with Jimmer Fredette. Danny Ainge, Lee Cummard, Larson and Roberts are tied for second on the career list with three.