Cougars defeat Alaska Anchorage in last exhibition game

BYU vs. Alaska Anchorage Box Score

BYU vs. Alaska Anchorage Game Notes and Quotes

PROVO, Utah – The BYU men’s basketball team defeated the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves 99-68 at the Marriott Center on Saturday.

BYU’s defense held UAA to 32.9 percent shooting and outrebounded the Seawolves 69-29, including 25 offensive rebounds. The Cougars scored 32 points on second-chance points, dominated in the paint 68-20 and outscored the Seawolves’ bench 40-24.

"The most important thing tonight is we got a lot of guys some good court time and our focus was to challenge and contest their 3-point shots," BYU head coach Dave Rose said. "They are a really good 3-point shooting team and they run really good action to get to that 3-point shot. Except for a couple real obvious mistakes, I thought most of the threes were pretty contested which obviously worked to our advantage."

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Freshman Eric Mika had a double-double, 17 points and 14 rebounds, off the bench, with junior Matt Carlino adding a double-double of his own with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Sophomore guard Kyle Collinsworth added 14 points, six rebounds and three assists, while Tyler Haws finished with 13 points and seven rebounds. Frank Bartley IV started the game and contributed four points, six rebounds and a team-high four assists. Nate Austin finished with eight points and six rebounds, while Skyler Halford and Anson Winder each scored nine points off the bench and combined for seven rebounds.

"I believe with this group that all these players can help us win," Rose said. "We still need to figure out their roles and our starting lineup and late game lineups, but being able to get a lot of young guys experience and time on the floor in a game setting is really good."

The Cougars got off to a slow 6-10 start until a Carlino layup tied the game 12-12 at 14:10. He followed it with another drive to the basket to give BYU its first lead of the game 14-12 with 13:36 remaining in the half. Mika got his first block of the game at the 13-minute mark. It was followed by a layup from Bartley off the inbound pass to give BYU a four-point lead.

Mika’s first dunk of the game came at the 10:14 minute mark off a pass from Austin. Haws made his first field goal driving to the basket and completed the three-point play to extend the lead 38-25. Collinsworth finished the first half scoring for BYU with a strong move to the basket with 16 seconds remaining to grab a 14-point lead at halftime.

The first points in the second half came from Haws’ steal to lead to Carlino’s drive to the rim, followed by Carlino’s cross-court pass to Kyle for an easy layup. Collinsworth’s first block came at the 16:17 mark followed by another block by Mika on the next AA possession. With 13:35 remaining, Collinsworth drove to the rim for an easy two-hand dunk to extend the lead 63-37, which was also part of a 13-0 run. Three minutes later, he made his third dunk of the game for a chance at a three-point play.

The Cougars will have their regular season home opener on Friday against Weber State at 7 p.m. MST. The game will be televised live on BYUtv and broadcast on the Cougar IMG Sports Network on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM.