BYU vs. Pepperdine Postgame Notes

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BYU vs. Pepperdine Game Story 

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PLAYER NOTES

Bringing in a total of 22 points and 10 rebounds, Eric Mika extended his six-game double-double streak, tying him for fourth longest in BYU history.

Mika’s first block of the game tallied a block in nine-straight games and 17 of 20 this season. Mika also scored 22 points giving him double figures in all 20 games this season. With 16 points, Mika hit a career high for points scored in the first half.

Nick Emery’s 3-pointer at the start of the game marked 29 consecutive games with a 3-pointer, surpassing Jimmer Fredette’s 28 game streak with a triple. Emery ended the game with two total threes and 10 points.

TJ Haws’ second three of the night gave him 42 treys for the season, breaking a tie with Matt Carlino for fifth most by a Cougar freshman. This 3-pointer marked his only three of the night but ended the game with eight total points. 

Elijah Bryant reached his fifth double-digit score of the season with 15 points and was the first BYU player of the night to hit doubles. 

Yoeli Childs hit double figure rebounds for the sixth time this season with a total of 14. He ended the game with eight total points.

TEAM NOTES

BYU's 51 points marked the second-highest score in a half. The highest scores in a half this season were 52 in the first half against Utah Valley University and 52 in the second half against St. Louis.

BYU tied its team high of seven blocks, set previously against Coastal Carolina, Idaho State, CSU Bakersfield and Pacific.

With 99 points the Cougars reached their second highest score of the regular season. The highest score this year was against UVU when BYU reached 101 points.

In the win tonight, 12 of the 13 Cougars that saw playing time scored at least two points.

Quotes

BYU head coach Dave Rose
Opening Statement
I thought it was a great effort by our guys. I thought that we were aggressive, we were really unselfish and we shared the ball. After the first four minutes on offense, we did a great job of attacking opportunities and getting to the rim. Our ability to sprint the floor and space the floor left a lot of space for our post guys, and when we threw it in, we moved well. Defensively for us, Pepperdine got off to a good start and scored ten points in the first four minutes, but we got better after that. (Chris) Reyes did a good job of getting the ball to the front of the rim and moving us out of the way, but as the game went on, we gave more resistance at the rim. I think that this win is good for our psyche and confidence now that we understand the challenge of turning this thing around and playing another road game. We have not had the same feel to our team on the road as we have at home. Hopefully, we can find that ability to get teams on their heels in their own gym. So, we’ll see if we can do that.

On finishing the half strong with 12 straight shots
I think we made more aggressive, attacking plays. We did a better job of attacking them and getting to the rim. In transition, we got wide open a few times, and I really believe that when this team plays with the right mindset and they are aggressively attacking and sharing the ball, we are much better offensively.

On Elijah Bryant’s level of play
Eli is still a ways away. He is playing better; he has played really well here at the Marriott Center, and now there is a progression in what you do and how you grow. I saw some really good things from him tonight besides scoring. He had a great defensive presence on (Lamond) Murray (Jr.), and then I saw his speed in transition. He got a couple rebounds and he was really physical, posting up. And that shows you that he has more confidence in how it is coming along.

On Nick Emery breaking Jimmer Fredette's record of straight games with 3-pointers
That’s good. If you can break any of Jimmer’s records, you are probably doing something good. Nick is a really aggressive player. Tonight, he got himself in foul trouble, but he had a really tough defensive assignment. That is where he is growing, in his ability to take the tough defender and still be able to score and help us. â€‹

Eric Mika
On pace of the game
I think we did an awesome job of doing that. Not only on the pace, but also our spacing. It really opened things up when our guards got down to the deep corners and when the bigs were running the floor. It showed tonight that we could do a lot of things on offense if we are playing on our pace and with good spacing.

On 12 straight shots in the first half
I think it is going back to the pace and spacing that we were playing with. We had a lot of good action in our practices this week, three really good practices, and we were going hard like we’re used to, racing the ball down the floor, running the floor as bigs and getting the spacing. When we can do that, we can give ourselves a lot of confidence because that is how we know how to play and how we’ve been practicing all year. Once we had that down, we were confident, sharing the ball and knocking down shots. It was awesome to be a part of it.

On bouncing back from losses
I think a lot goes into that. We do a good job of sticking together a team, both coaches and players, just trusting in our abilities to bounce back, play better and learn from our mistakes in our losses. We have done an awesome job of that. I am happy to be able to be part of a team that can do that because it is not as easy as it looks. It is tough to lose a game, especially in conference. You never want to let one go. We just have to learn from it, do better on Saturday and finish this up with a two-win weekend.

Difference in home vs. road games.
It is the energy that comes from the crowd, being comfortable and familiar with a loud crowd. Both home and away, we’ll get a lead and a string of stops, but it’s hard to keep it going. It’s up and down on the road, whereas it’s easier when the crowd can carry you. They can be a daunting cloud over the opposing team. We just need to find a way to get ourselves going, find an internal energy, when we are on the road, and I think we can do that same things we do at home.

Elijah Bryant
On how his knee feels
This is how I am used to playing. Before, I was playing at 65 percent, but I wanted to give everything to my team that I had. I think the coaches and teammates are putting me in positions to be able to be efficient like this.

On his role as sixth man
I love it. Whatever coach needs me to do to help the team to win. At the beginning of the season, it wasn’t expected, but (I want to do) whatever I can to the team to be more efficient and win.

Pepperdine head coach Marty Wilson
Opening Statement
We knew we were going to be ready after they were coming off with a loss against San Diego. We knew that they were going to be dialed in and executing. I thought that the second 10 minutes of the first half was where the game got away from us. We gave them easy baskets and easy runouts. We blew out some assignments defensively and we gave them some momentum and we couldn’t recover after that.

On disparity on the boards
Well, some of it was size and some of our guards leaked out. We talked about that and we need our guards to read out. Our guards take a lot of long shots. BYU is big and physical, but that’s just an excuse. We have to get down there and get dirty and rebound and we did that late in the second half, but we need to do that in the first half as well.

On playing the roster, part of game plan
The situation dictates that. Again, playing in altitude and the guys being tired. It was obviously a tough, blow-out loss and we need to rest some of those guys and prepare for Saturday.