BYU vs. San Francisco: Game Notes and Quotes

• Brandon Davies opened the game hot, making his first 4 shots and scoring 9 of BYU’s first 13 points. Davies finished with 12 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists to tie a career-high and had 2 blocks.
• Brock Zylstra hit every shot he took, going 8 of 8 from the field, including making a career-high 6 three-pointers, totaling a game-high 22 points. It was the first time a player has been perfect from the floor (min. 5 attempts) since Noah Hartsock did it last season against Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament. Zylstra also grabbed 6 boards, 3 assists and 1 steal.
• Zylstra's six-consecutive 3-pointers without a miss tied a BYU record for consecutive threes in a single game. Nathan Call set the mark in 1991 and Jonathan Tavernari tied it in 2007.
• Charles Abouo was a distributor, picking up a career-high 7 assists to lead the team. He also added 2 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals.
• Matt Carlino shot 3 of 3 in the first half for 9 points while collecting two assists. He finished with 12 points, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 rebound.

• Head coach Dave Rose went with the starting lineup of Matt Carlino, Brock Zylstra, Charles Abouo, Noah Hartsock and Brandon Davies.
• BYU assisted on all 16 first-half field goals and 11 of 13 second half makes. The 27 assists on 29 field goals was two off a season high in total assists but the percentage (93.1) is tops for the season.
• The Cougars had four players in double figures. Zylstra led all scorers with 22 while Hartsock added 14 points and Davies and Carlino chipped in 12 points apiece. Those four players also added 15 assists combined.
• BYU shot 63.2 percent from the 3-point line, a season-high conversion rate, making 12 of 19 treys.

• The Cougars opened the game shooting 6 of 7 from the field to take a 13-8 lead in the first five minutes of play.
• Zylstra hit three-straight 3-pointers to give BYU a 22-8 lead as part of a 9-0 run with 11:39 remaining in the first half.
• BYU assisted on 16 of 16 first-half field goals to take a 42-20 lead into the break, shooting 61.5 percent (16 of 26) for the half and 70 percent (7 of 10) from behind the arc.
• Abouo’s turnaround jumper at the 15:56 mark in the second half was BYU’s first basket that was unassisted. The make gave the Cougars a 52-29 lead.
• BYU went cold for a while in the second half, not making a field goal for over 6 minutes but still led 71-42 with 5:07 to play when Hartsock made a jump shot.

BYU Head Coach Dave Rose
"I thought we played really hard and together. We shared the ball really well. Defensively we were really good at times as far as keeping them on the perimeter not getting through our defense. “

"Brock was really good tonight. One thing that I get excited about as a coach is when a player plays that well and teammates continue to find him and get him open looks. Our post guys have been so consistent that they're getting a lot of attention. If they get double-teamed it can really help us when our perimeter guys can knock it in."

"Every game has its own personality and every team has its own game plan. This group really made an effort to double Noah and Brandon and it freed up our perimeter guys. Plus, I thought we were a lot more patient. During our game on Thursday night we were in a hurry."

"We get in a rhythm to how they want to play. The last four or five games we really got the ball inside to see how they would guard us. Tonight, Brandon scored the ball really well early, Noah had some tough shots go in and then it became evident that our post guys would have to be more facilitators than scorers, especially how our guys were shooting the ball."

"Being at home with your students back is one of the most exciting things in January. It's a great student section and I think our guys responded well tonight."

"We started in man and they did good job of penetrating. So we went to zone and we were able to keep them out of penetration mode for a few possessions."

USF head coach Rex Walters
“I was really disappointed in myself. We don’t catch and shot fake on the catch, we caught and bounced. Jimmer was a guy that could do that but we don’t have that guy. That really affected us tonight. We were always trying to play catch up against their zone. I’m watching our guys and they won’t even look at the basket and that’s bad coaching on my part.”

“Hartsock is a heck of a player and Davies is a good player too. Carlino gives them an element off the bounce. Their fourth option, and I hope he doesn’t take offense to this, was Zylstra. He can make tough ones, fadeaways, he can make them coming off the inbounds. You have to make a guy that can shoot bounce the basketball.”