Brandon Davies leads BYU past Montana, 85-60
Deseret News - Wednesday, Nov. 28 2012
SALT LAKE CITY — While Tyler Haws' streak of six consecutive 20-point games ended Wednesday night, Brandon Davies did a little bit of everything — except commit a foul — for BYU.
The Cougars (4-2) jumped out to a fast start against Montana and cruised to an 85-60 victory before a crowd of 12,378 Wednesday night at EnergySolutions Arena.
... BYU never trailed Wednesday. Haws hit a jumper seconds after the opening tipoff to kickstart a 14-2 run for the Cougars. Montana spent the game trying to catch up. "We wanted to come out strong and get consecutive stops," Haws said. "When we get consecutive stops and rebound and run, we're pretty good." "I thought we played well. I'm really pleased with the start of the game," Rose said. "Defensively, we got off to a great start and challenged every shot early. Offensively, we got open shots and hit them so we got off to a nice lead."
However, while BYU led 42-31 at halftime, Rose was not pleased with the Cougars' rebounding, or lack thereof. At that point, the Grizzlies were outrebounding BYU, 17-8, and the Cougars hadn't grabbed a single offensive rebound. That issue was addressed at intermission. In the second half, BYU snatched 12 offensive rebounds and outrebounded Montana overall, 35-30. “I don’t think we had a single offensive rebound in the first half, and that is something we do," Davies said. "They did a great job getting us out of that. But in the second half, we came out and we got an offensive rebound on the first possession.”
Rose liked what he saw overall from his players against the Grizzlies. "It's a tough team. They're very physical," he said. "It's hard to get the ball in the post and they contest everything. I thought that we got stronger as the game went on, which is a good sign when you play a team like that."
All in all, the Cougars enjoyed another visit to EnergySolutions Arena, their home-away-from home. "We love coming here. We love playing in here," Davies said. "We have a lot of wins in here. We've beaten a lot of good teams in here." BYU visits Iowa State Saturday (noon, Cyclones.tv).
NOTES: Forward Nate Austin, who is dealing with some nagging injuries, played just two minutes. … BYU shot 62.5 percent (15 for 24) from the field in the first half for its best field-goal percentage in a first half this season and its third time to shoot over 50 percent in the first half. … The Cougars outscored Montana 32-16 in the paint and 26-7 off turnovers. … BYU is now 5-0 this season when it scores between 80-89 points and 4-0 when it shoots better than 50 percent from the field.
