Cougars fall short against No. 13 Utah

BYU vs. Utah Notes and Quotes

BYU vs. Utah Box Score

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PROVO, Utah – Tyler Haws and Kyle Collinsworth combined for 40 points but BYU men's basketball fell short, 65-61, against No. 13 Utah in the Marriott Center Wednesday night.

"Congratulations to Larry, his staff and their team," BYU basketball coach Dave Rose said. "The one thing that you know from this game is that both teams were really competing and had their runs. A stretch where we're normally pretty good coming out of the locker room, but we had a hard time getting shots and they did a good job of taking us out of things and got us scattered. We tried to make a run back to finish it at the end, but came up a little short."

Haws finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and a block with Collinsworth finishing with 17 points, nine rebounds, five assists and a block on the night. Anson Winder contributed 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals, while Skyler Halford had a game-high three steals.

The Cougars scored the first points of the game on Haws’ drive to the rim at the 18:47 mark after Josh Sharp’s block at the other end.

Utah took a 19-9 lead less than eight minutes into the game, but BYU went on a quick 6-0 run to cut its deficit to 24-17 with 8:51 left. The run was ignited with Collinsworth’s assist to Corbin Kaufusi for a two-hand dunk and was followed by Halford’s steal and bucket on the other end and Winder’s steal and layup on the break at the 8:51 mark.

With under six minutes in the first half, Collinsworth threw down back-to-back dunks off Halford steals as part of a 14-0 BYU run. To continue the run, Collinsworth connected on the first 3-pointer of the game, which was followed by Kaufusi’s block that led to a 3-pointer by Haws to tie the game at 28 apiece with 1:16 remaining in the half. Haws capped the run with another shot from deep with 33 seconds left and the Cougars entered halftime up 31-30.

Haws finished the half with 12 points and grabbed five rebounds, while Collinsworth added 11 points of his own. BYU held the Utes to 0 of 8 shooting from beyond the arc in the first half. 

Chase Fischer made his first shot of the game from deep two minutes into the half to extend BYU’s lead to four at 38-34. Collinsworth’s drive ended a Utes 10-0 run before Haws’ 3-pointer brought the Cougars within three with under 13 minutes remaining.

Utah continued to maintain its lead at 58-47, but was followed by a Haws’ layup and Winder’s shot from deep to cut Utah’s lead to 58-52 with 4:41 left in the game. Winder connected on another 3-pointer to bring BYU within four and Collinsworth’s putback at the 1:13 mark cut the deficit to 62-59, but the Cougars didn't get any closer falling 65-61.

The Cougars hit the road to take on Weber State on Saturday at the Dee Events Center with tipoff starting at 7 p.m. MST. The game will be televised live on KJZZ and broadcast on the Cougar IMG Sports Network on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM.