Cougars come up short to No. 21 UMass

BYU vs. UMass Notes and Quotes

BYU vs. UMass Box Score

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Tyler Haws and Matt Carlino combined for 48 points in a 105-96 loss to the No. 21 UMass Minutemen on Saturday at the MassMutual Center.

"Our guys played their hearts out," BYU basketball coach Dave Rose said. "They played hard. We got into a tough spot early. We just had a hard time controlling their penetration  and that was a huge part of what we had to do. We got in foul trouble early and it made us soft and they took advantage of it."

Haws finished with a team-high 25 points, while Carlino added 23 points and six assists. Eric Mika had a near double-double with 18 points and eight rebounds despite battling through foul trouble.

Kyle Collinsworth contributed 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists of his own with Frank Bartley IV coming off the bench to score 14 points.

BYU (7-3) finished with a 48.5 shooting percentage, but allowed UMass (8-0) to shoot 55.6 percent. The Cougars also outrebounded the Minutemen 33-29 and forced 14 turnovers.

"I think that this team caused us the most problems in our zone," Rose said. "They could spread us out because of their shooters... The way they shot the ball tonight it's tough because they don't shoot as well on paper as they did today. This group the way they played tonight caused us a lot of problems."

Mika started the Cougars off by completing a three-point play for a 3-0 lead. A Carlino jumper gave BYU a 7-3 lead and the Cougars maintained a field goal lead for the first four minutes, but UMass answered with an 11-0 run to take a 14-8 lead. Collinsworth ended the run with a free throw with 14:13 on the clock, which was followed by a Mika dunk down the lane off a pass from Bartley to cut the deficit to 14-11. Haws made three-consecutive jumpers, but was answered with a UMass bucket each time on the other end to keep its five-point lead with 10:35 remaining in the half.

A couple of technical fouls led to a quick four-point swing by UMass to increase its lead to 29-21. Collinsworth responded with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit back to five at the 8:37 mark. The Minutemen extended their lead 40-30 and was immediately cut in half with seven points from Haws and two from Carlino. UMass ended the half on another big 8-0 run to keep BYU down 52-41 at the half.

Haws ended the half leading with a team-high 15 points, while Mika and Carlino scored eight points each. Collinsworth finished with four points, three assists and five rebounds.

BYU got off to an 8-0 start in the second half to cut the deficit to three at 52-49, but a 9-2 Minutemen run increased BYU’s deficit to 67-55 with 13:43 remaining in the game. Bartley made the next six of BYU’s eight points, but still trailed 71-63 halfway into the second half.

With seven minutes left, BYU matched a game-high deficit, 82-67. Another 3-pointer by Collinsworth and a Haws jumper cut UMass’ lead to 10 points with 3:47 remaining in the game, but couldn’t overcome the Minutemen’s runs throughout the game.

"I think all of them we played well, but we just need to finish them better," Mika said. "This game we played better in the second half and got off to a slow start defensively. We just need to figure that out quicker and we can play with anybody."

The Cougars return to the Marriott Center to take on Prairie View A&M on Wednesday 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.