Winder scores career high, BYU wins third straight

BYU vs. Mount St. Mary's Notes and Quotes

BYU vs. Mount St. Mary's Box Score

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PROVO, Utah – Junior guard Anson Winder scored a career-high 22 points to lead the BYU men’s basketball team to a 108-76 victory over Mount St. Mary’s in the first game of the College Basketball Experience Hall of Fame Classic on Friday.

"I thought we came out with good energy," BYU basketball head coach Dave Rose said. "I thought that our guys responded really well in an uncertain situation with Tyler. I think our guys adjusted really well. Anson came in and had a great game filling in for Tyler and the rest of the bench stepped up. Guys got a lot of playing time and they responded with really positive nights."

BYU shot 60.3 percent from the field, while holding MSMU to 37.1 percent, and dominated in the paint outscoring the Mountaineers 58-10. Six Cougars scored in double digits, BYU outrebounded MSMU 52-32 and scored 24 points on the break.

Winder, who started in place of an injured Tyler Haws, added six rebounds to go with his career-high 22 points, while freshman Eric Mika added a career-high 20 points, four rebounds and two blocks. Kyle Collinsworth finished with his second double-double of the season, 13 points and 10 rebounds to go with four assists. Matt Carlino had an all-around game with 10 points, eight assists, six rebounds, three steals and a block in 24 minutes of play.

"We are all playing as free and confident as we can," Winder said. "The coaches have instilled a lot of confidence in us and I think it shows. Hopefully we can keep it up."

Freshman Frank Bartley came off the bench to finish with career-highs 16 points and seven rebounds with Skyler Halford also posting a career high with 15 points.

The first Cougar points came from an inbound pass to Mika to tie it at 2-2. Carlino then made his first 3-pointer of the game to give BYU a 5-2 lead at the 18:51 mark. Mika got his first block of the game two minutes in, which was followed by a Collinsworth assist to Mika for his first dunk of the season. With 13:23 remaining in the half, Collinsworth drove to the rim for a three-point play to extend the lead 19-14. Carlino got his first block of the season at the 10:45 mark, which came during a 13-2 run by BYU.

BYU went on a 10-0 run, which included two steals by Carlino that led to Winder’s three-point play and an easy Carlino layup to extend the lead 37-19. Bartley went on a solo 6-0 run with a strong move to the basket to complete the three-point play and a 3-pointer on the next possession to grab a 20-point lead. With 0:39 remaining in the half, Winder made his second 3-pointer of the game to end the half leading 54-34.

Winder led the Cougars at the half with 14 points, four assists and two rebounds, while Collinsworth finished with 11 points, two rebounds and two assists. Carlino ended the half with six points, six rebounds and five assists with Bartley finishing with 10 points and five rebounds off the bench.

The second half was ignited by Mika’s second block of the game that led to a dunk in transition to extend the lead to 56-34. One minute into the second half, Nate Austin made his first 3-pointer of the game, which was followed by a Collinsworth steal that led to Mika’s third dunk with the assist from Winder at the 17:34 mark. Three minutes later, Collinsworth made a spin move for a two-hand dunk to increase the lead to 28 at 70-42.

With 13:57 remaining in the game, Mika added another three-point play off a touch pass from Winder. The Cougars went on a 15-3 run, which included an alley-oop from Bartley to Mika to give BYU a 101-65 lead and also made it the second game in a row that BYU has scored more than 100 points.

"We look forward to tomorrow and hope we can repeat this game and come out with a lot of energy and see if we can improve a little bit on execution," Rose said. 

The Cougars will continue the College Basketball Experience Hall of Fame Classic against Colorado Mesa at the Marriott Center on Saturday at 7:30 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.