Estimated read time: 5-6 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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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.
PROVO — As San Francisco's players retreated to the locker room following a Quad 1 win on the road screaming "we got one," a very different thought permeated BYU's side.
The Cougars made some kind of history Thursday night — just not the one worth celebrating.
Jamaree Bouyea had 13 points, six rebounds and four assists, and Khalil Shabazz added 15 points and four rebounds as San Francisco stormed into the Marriott Center and exited with a 73-59 win over the Cougars, handing BYU its third-straight loss — the longest regular-season skid under third-year head coach Mark Pope — in front of an announced crowd of 13,361 fans.
Yauhen Massalski had 16 points, 13 rebounds and three assists for San Francisco to help the Dons overtake BYU in the conference standings. Combined with road losses at Santa Clara and Pacific, the fourth home loss in Pope's tenure pushed the Cougars down to sixth in the league with six games remaining.
Alex Barcello poured in a game-high 25 points for BYU (17-7, 5-4 WCC), which got 12 points off the bench from Seneca Knight.
Let's Go! @USFDonsMBB great win 👏 pic.twitter.com/1hNu5foGIx
— WCC Basketball (@WCChoops) February 4, 2022
For the conference, the dream of a four tournament bids rose. But for BYU, one of the worst stretches in Pope's tenure continued — and with No. 2 Gonzaga on deck Saturday night (8 p.m. MST, ESPN).
"They're skilled and veteran and big. They executed very well and hurt us in a lot of ways," Pope said of San Francisco, which ranked 36th in the NET and 38th in KenPom. "We're clearly disappointed with the outcome.
"The game is testing us a bit right now. We'll find some answers."
It marked just the third Quad 1 victory for the Dons (18-4, 5-3 WCC), who improved to 3-3 in such opportunities on the season with another 2-1 record in Quad 2.
With a new starting lineup that included Gideon George for Caleb Lohner, BYU got out to about as good of a start as can be expected. Barcello scored 8 points, including banging a pair of threes, and the Cougars used a 12-2 run en route to a 12-4 advantage five minutes into the game.
The Cougars held Shabazz and Bouyea scoreless on their first five combined attempts from the field before Bouyea nailed a jumper with 11:41 left. But Bouyea tied the game at 16-16 with his first 3-pointer of the night shortly before picking up his second foul inside of the 10-minute mark, and the Dons were off and running.
"We spent six minutes in places we don't recognize," said Pope, who described his locker room with words like somber, frustration, worry and doubt. "I'm not sure exactly; we've been there before. It might be a little bit of the rotation … which I'm still fighting so hard to figure out how to reconcile numbers, feel, look and growth. I'm not doing a good job right now.
"It's really haunting us right now. We're really searching right now, and trying to find some answers."
Shabazz connected on consecutive 3-pointers to push USF's lead to 26-19, and the Dons held BYU to just one field goal in the final 8:04 en route to a 40-25 halftime lead. Shabazz and Bouyea had 11 points apiece at the break for USF, which used a 24-7 run overall that included a ridiculous 3-pointer by Bouyea in the final seconds of the half to take control.
The Dons pushed the lead as high as 21 early in the second half and never trailed, withstanding a counter-punch by Barcello and a career night from Atiki Ally Atiki, who had career-high 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting, four rebounds and four blocks.
WHAT A HEAVE FROM JAMAREE BOUYEA 😱@USFDonsMBBpic.twitter.com/9uri2wVqaC
— CBS Sports Network (@CBSSportsNet) February 4, 2022
"Great resilient effort. We knew it was going to be really challenging coming in here and finding a way," USF coach Todd Golden said. "We could've folded with 16,000 people here, but we didn't. We started to find our way ... We grew up as a team tonight."
Te'Jon Lucas capped a 10-2 run that pulled the Cougars within 10, and Gideon George trimmed the deficit as low as 58-49 with 6:36 to go as BYU held the Dons to just 1-of-10 shooting over the previous six minutes.
But Zane Meeks halted the comeback as any good sophomore would: the USF underclassmen used a pseudo-armbar to shove Caleb Lohner through the BYU bench while going after a loose-ball rebound. Meeks was awarded a technical foul for the effort — so was Lohner for retaliating — but the ensuing kerfuffle took more than five minutes to sort out.
By that time, the Cougars' attempted comeback bid was squashed as San Francisco responded with an 11-1 run to pull away for arguably its biggest win of the year — and one that pushes the West Coast Conference squarely in four-bid tournament territory after the two sides split road games on the season series.
The Dons head to Portland on the weekend having won three of their last four games. The Cougars stay home to welcome the Zags — and entertain a lot of emotions as they try to combat the emotions of a losing skid.
"You lose a couple of games, and … the game is testing us," Pope said. "The game is a beautiful thing; it challenges you in every way, and right now it's testing us. It's testing togetherness, it's testing our confidence … it's what happens when you go through a stretch like this in the season, which everyone does.
"There's going to be a ton of emotion. But you can't hide from it. You can't run away from it. You have to embrace it and overcome it, stare it right in the face, manage it, deal with it, stay constructive and deal with it."
Tipoff against Gonzaga is scheduled for 8 p.m. MST on ESPN.
