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PROVO — Both junior Nate Austin and freshman Eric Mika set new rebounding career-highs Saturday to help the Cougars grind out a 68-63 victory over San Francisco and separate themselves in second place in the West Coast Conference.
Over its last four wins, BYU is has averaged a plus-13 advantage on the glass, including plus-8 on offensive rebounds and plus-9 in second-chance points. Austin’s 16 total and eight offensive boards were both career-bests and combined with Mika’s 13 rebounds, the Cougars were able to create additional scoring opportunities and again win second-chance points, 16-4.
“We’ve been scoring in the 80s on a nice little stretch here and then you win a game at 68 and that’s how you do it,” head coach Dave Rose said. “You make big plays on the defensive end; you get big rebounds on misses.”
An important component to BYU’s success on the glass was forcing San Francisco to take contested shots, which allowed the Cougars to hold the Dons to 13 fewer points than their season average (76.5).
It was only the second time all season that USF has lost a game in which it held its opponent to less than 70 points.
“There are two teams in our league that have that size and athleticism,” USF head coach Rex Walters said. “When you talk about Mika, Sharp, Austin, they’re a really big team across the board.”
Everything came really difficult tonight. There was nothing easy. It had a whole different feel to the last couple of games.
–Dave Rose
Walters added that he stressed the importance of playing fast by getting back in transition. The Dons regularly dropped four men back defensively after a miss or a make, sacrificing chances for offensive boards to limit the Cougars to six fast-break points.
“Everything came really difficult tonight,” Rose said. “There was nothing easy. It had a whole different feel to the last couple of games.”
Junior Matt Carlino scored all of the team’s bench points with 11 and dished out nine assists. His third 3-pointer with 2:37 remaining gave BYU its largest second-half lead at 65-60 before Carlino found Mika on the Cougars’ next possession to put them ahead by seven.
“I was just doing what I can, trying to control the team and get us in our sets,” Carlino said. “I had some open looks, so I took (them).”
Just minutes before Carlino’s final three gave BYU a cushion, Austin continued to provide energy by taking a charge and then followed it up on offense by cleaning up a miss with a put-back slam.
“Nate has kind of filled a role on this team but actually become a star because every night he’s consistent in what he does to help our team win,” Rose said.
The 63 points surrendered are the lowest total BYU has given up since an 87-53 win over San Diego Jan. 4 and are the third-lowest allowed by the Cougars this season.
BYU held USF to 5-for-14 (35.7 percent) shooting from 3-point range. No opponent has shot better than 36 percent from behind the arc over the Cougars’ last three games.
Sophomore Kyle Collinsworth and junior Tyler Haws led the team offensively with 19 points apiece, and Collinsworth also added eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
BYU (17-9, 9-4) sits alone in second place in the WCC and is on the road for its next two games. First up is Pacific (13-10, 4-8) Thursday at 7 p.m.
