Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LAS VEGAS — The numbers help tell the story of BYU's WCC Tournament semifinal clash against Gonzaga:
7,828: The sell-out crowd count in the Orleans Arena for Saturday night's semifinal between BYU and the Bulldogs.
19: The points BYU lost to Gonzaga by.
7: The days BYU will have to endure questions about what postseason home they’ll be marching to.
It all added up to a big 77-58 win for Gonzaga.
After grabbing a win in the quarterfinals against the University of San Diego on Friday, the Cougs weren't able to start their leading scorer in the semifinals against Gonzaga.
BYU head coach Dave Rose said he didn't expect much out of BYU star Noah Hartsock, who's been dealing with a knee problem the past two weeks, when the Cougars departed for Vegas.
However, Hartsock gutted it out Friday to score 19 points in 27 minutes against San Diego.
As it turned out, Hartsock simply wasn't able to start Saturday against Gonzaga, just 24 hours removed from his gutsy quarterfinal performance.
With Hartsock looking on early on, Gonzaga went right at BYU.
Only three short minutes into the game the Cougars opened their eyes to a scoreboard where they were on the blink with Gonzaga — BYU started out shooting 1-5 for just two points to match up against Gonzaga’s early six points. With the Cougs leaving the door to their messy room ajar the Zags grabbed an early glimpse of BYU’s vulnerability.
Trying to place confidence back in his players, Rose had Hartsock sub in at 17:01. However, the difficult physical and mental start for BYU snowballed into a bigger and bigger deficit. With the Zags pulling shots from increasingly farther distances (many coming from behind the 3-point line by sharp-shooting guard Kevin Pangos) BYU gave into the enticing temptation to rush shots.
Already feeding the natural instinct to remove their brakes — something that “just happens when you get down” according to BYU forward Brandon Davies — BYU found itself uncontrollably swerving through lanes to avoid collision with any of the Gonzaga skyscrapers.
“Their size caused us a lot of problems,” Rose said. “That’s why they’re good because they don’t just have one or two guys that are big. They keep bringing them in. That tends to get your guys rushing a little but, especially right at the rim. You’re (always) looking around.”
And while the Zags pulled away, Hartsock struggled to pull himself from one end of the court to the other. With his leg noticeably sore Rose sought to give his team another scorer and subbed in forward Stephen Rogers, who's been limited because of injury himself, at 9:19 with BYU down 27-11.
Putting in Rogers went against the very game plan that Rose had vocalized less than 24 hours before in his quarterfinal postgame press conference.
“What he’ll be for us (is) a (guy) that can spell someone that’s tired, or maybe give us some minutes when we get in foul trouble,” Rose said Friday. “(He won’t see significant game time) until he gets some more time in practice and we can put multiple practices together.”
But even with Rogers’s help down low, Hartsock’s body simply could not handle the beating of running the court.
“(My knee) is still bothering me,” Hartsock said. “I think playing yesterday and then coming out today had an effect on that. … It is frustrating in the sense that I can’t make all of the moves that I want to or don’t have all of the power back."
Not able to get down the court in time to set up much- needed offensive plays, Hartsock was subbed out at 7:45.
Even with Hartsock out BYU still sought to match the success of its opponent and kept in their own skyscraper front — Davies, Rogers and Nate Austin.
The Cougs continued to be broken down the entire first half with their leading scorer and backbone coming in and out of the game almost more times than they were able to score. The half closed with the Cougars behind 38-26.
Confidence accompanied the Cougs' march out of the locker- room. Hitting a few more shots at the very beginning made things look good for the Cougs — or at least it could have, had Gonzaga star Pangos not answered BYU baskets with his own makes.
“I think when you have a player who has the ball in his hands as much as Pangos does it changes things,” Rose said. “ Pangos is a guy that’s got a really quick release. That’s what makes him really good.”
Occupant of skyscraper city, Gonzaga forward Elias Harris backed up the importance of bringing inside-out shots to their leading scorer, Pangos.
“He’s really good at reading the game,” Harris said. “He had some open shots and he was good at knocking those down.”
Never being able to bring the game to single digits after Gonzaga’s initial double-digit lead earned at 14:49 in the first half, BYU just couldn’t ever crawl out of its rut.
“You have to be smart when you get down,” BYU forward Charles Abouo said. “Everybody wants to compete and everyone wants to come back and we have guys that have some fight in them, but they got to be smart in trying to do it one possession at a time. … We just tried to make two plays in one possession. … We got ahead of ourselves when we were trying to come back at times.”
Having been knocked out of the WCC Tournament, the real question looming over the Cougs now is whether or not their drive back to Provo is for good. Not having the option of the security blanket of a direct bid into the NCAA Tournament (given to the conference tournament champion) the Cougs will now have to wait a week until Selection Sunday to find out where they will be spending March.
“It’s going to be hard just sitting around watching games, just seeing what happens out there,” Hartsock said.
And while the unknown is never comfortable for anyone, Rose feels confident in the performance of his players this season and therefore thinks they deserve to depart again from Provo (where they would instead be playing in the NIT if they don't get an NCAA Tournament spot).
“This team has overcome a lot,” Rose said. “They’ve been resilient in times of challenges … finding ways to win games. I’m proud of this group of guys. … This team deserves to be in the NCAA Tournament.”
Karissa Urry is a Brigham Young University student majoring in Public Relations and minoring in Business Management. Follow her on Twitter @KarissaEUrry
