Box Score
PROVO, Utah - Despite holding the WCC's highest scoring team to nearly 20 point under its season average and 41 percent shooting from the floor, USF fell to BYU 68-63 on Saturday before over 18,000 fans at the Marriott Center.
BYU made up for its offensive struggles by dominating USF on the boards, where the Cougars outrebounded the Dons, 47-29. Of BYU's 47 rebounds, 20 came off the offensive glass that led to 16 second chance points.
The loss drops USF's record to 15-10 overall and to 8-5 in the West Coast Conference, while the Cougars improve to 16-9 overall and 9-4 in the WCC.
Tim Derksen came off the bench to lead all USF scorers with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor.
Mark Tollefsen added 12 before fouling out while
Avry Holmes and
Cole Dickerson chipped in with 10 each.
Tyler Haws and Kyle Collinsworth paced the Cougars with 19 points.
The Dons shot 49.1 percent from the floor, including 56.5 percent in the second half, but could not counter the Cougars tenacity on the boards.
Half of Nate Austin's 16 rebounds came on the offensive glass while Eric Minka added 13 boards to go along with his 13 points.
Neither team could find much of an offensive rhythm in the first half as BYU took a 32-29 lead into the break.
The Dons were the more aggressive team to start the second half and used an 8-3 run to open a 39-35 lead with 15:22 left.
Cole Dickerson gave the Dons their largest lead at 52-47 with 10:13, but BYU cut the lead down to one on a dunk by Mika and a jumper by Haws.
With the score tied at 55 with 5:43 left, the Cougars scored six straight points to take a 61-55 lead with 4:27 left. The Dons would not fold as Derksen drained a jumper to cut the Cougar lead down to 62-60 with 2:55 remaining.
A three-pointer by Carlino followed by a Mika jumper gave the Cougars a 67-60 cushion with 2:02 left.
Derksen gave the Dons some life with a three-pointer that cut the lead to 67-63 with 1:49 left. USF missed an opportunity to draw within one when Holmes misfired on a three-pointer with :57 left.
Carlino made 1-of-2 free throws with :31 left to close out the scoring as the Cougars completed the season series sweep of the Dons.
USF will return to action next Saturday when they face Santa Clara at the Leavey Center. Tip-off is set for 8:00 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
Rex Walters' Post-Game Comments
"Our guys played really hard but offensive rebounds really hurt us. I thought defensively we did a pretty good job on guarding the first shot. Tyler Haws had been tearing up this league and he finished with 19 points on 20 shots. That's pretty good."
"We have to figure out a way to keep teams off the line. Once again, they made more free throws than we shot. And we have to keep them off the glass."
"We have to use this game to fuel us and get better."
"Our guys were locked into our schemes and we knew this was a heck of an opportunity for us. We had a chance to get one on the road and it was there for the taking, but we couldn't keep them off the glass."
"I thought our effort was good and we got good enought shots and defensively we were pretty sound. It's tough to overcome 20 offensive rebounds and we have to keep them off the line."
"Tim (Derksen) was phenomonal. I love his toughness and aggressiveness. You know where his heart is and what he is about."
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