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PROVO — With about three minutes left in the opening round of the Maui Invitational, Dalton Nixon took the ball into his own hands and started to drive.
Then he stopped. He stuttered. He stopped for a moment, then stepped behind the 3-point line and let it fly.
Swish.
Nixon’s 3-pointer with 2:54 left helped spark a 14-2 run that sealed BYU's 78-63 upset win over UCLA.
It wasn’t the first time a Nixon has hit a big shot for BYU in Lahaina Civic Center; 27 years previous, Dalton’s father Kevin Nixon nailed the game-winning 14-footer as time expired to give BYU a 76-75 victory over No. 9 Oklahoma during an improbable tournament run in Maui.
With his dad in the stands, Dalton Nixon — a senior from Orem who has spent four years of eligibility doing a lot of dirty work for the Cougars, first under legendary coach Dave Rose and now under first-year coach Mark Pope — wrote his own name into BYU’s lore in Maui.
Nixon’s 8 points and four rebounds were crucial to the Cougars’ 78-63 win over the Bruins, launching BYU into the winners’ bracket semifinals at Lahaina for the first time since his father played there in 1992.
For perhaps the first time since that magical run, the Cougars weren’t simply content with being invited to the islands during Thanksgiving break. They wanted to win.
And it took a Nixon to get them a victory.
“That Dalton Nixon; he’s just a winner. I say it every time; he is a winner,” BYU coach Mark Pope told BYU Radio. “These guys have been together for a long time, and Dalton and Zac (Seljaas), I’m not sure there is anything they can’t get done together. It’s extraordinary. I’m so proud of those two young men.”
Jake Toolson had a game-high 20 points, and TJ Haws was critical with his 15 points and four assists. Even Alex Barcello's 9 points and five assists played an instrumental role in BYU's upset victory.
But so, too, did a lot of players. That was the beauty of the win for Pope — it was a team win, and one that showed valuable improvement in his first season in Provo.
Take Seljaas, who had a career-high 11 rebounds — leading all board-getters on a night when UCLA outrebounded BYU 28-26. But the Bountiful native whose career has vacillated between shooting guard to high post and everywhere in between didn’t let the Cougars’ apparent size disadvantage get the best of him.
BYU has been outrebounded in every game this season. That, perhaps, is to be expected from a team missing Yoeli Childs to a nine-game suspension and Gavin Baxter to a likely season-ending shoulder injury.
But the gap is narrowing in those decisive board battles, and Seljaas is a key reason why. The 6-foot-7 guard-turned-wing-turned-post used every inch of his frame Monday night to pull down critical board after critical board, leading to an upset of one of college basketball’s marquee teams — a win that will likely resonate in March.
“Coach Pope keeps telling us that we’re going to be a great rebounding team, and the only way to get rebounds is to just attack it,” Seljaas said. “You go into practice and try to work as hard as you can, but in-game, it’s just not the same as in practice. Me, Dalton and Kolby all stood up and said, ‘We’re going to go get rebounds now.’
“That’s how it works.”
Seljaas has taken to his role of rebounder with aplomb, but it wasn’t until Monday night that he broke out in a big way. He opened the season with eight boards against Cal Start Fullerton, then had eight total rebounds in the next three games — combined. After pulling that number up slightly in a 72-68 loss to Boise State, the Bruins were the subject of his even more imposing will on the glass, the first time he’s pulled down double-digit rebounds since grabbing 10 in an 87-76 win over Pepperdine last year.
“We’re making progress. That’s what I’m so proud of,” Pope said of the team’s improvement. “These guys are really taking things to heart, and emphasizing the points that we have to do well.”
They’ll have to get even better overnight, if they hope to contend with No. 4 Kansas in the tournament semifinals Tuesday night (8:30 p.m. MST, ESPN).
Rest. Rejuvenate. Recover.
The Jayhawks await. It'll be the first meeting between the two teams since Kevin Nixon wore BYU blue.
“To play UCLA, to play Kansas, and to do it in Maui,” Seljaas said, “how much better can it get?”
