BYU basketball: Cougars decimated by Saint Mary’s

BYU basketball’s NCAA Tournament dreams have been dashed, with the Cougars getting blown out by Saint Mary’s on Monday.

It was not a good night for BYU basketball.

Just nine days after the Cougars knocked off No. 1 Gonzaga, BYU basketball got shellacked – for the third time this season – by the St. Mary’s Gaels, 81-50.

SMC was the better team right off the tip. BYU struggled to convert looks all night, and the Cougars fell into the hero ball offense that they’ve fallen back on so many times this season. The last time BYU basketball played SMC, they scored a season-low 57 points. Most thought it couldn’t get any worse.

Tonight, BYU set a new season-low, dropping just 50. The Cougars never led in the game and were unfortunately outclassed.

We knew SMC wasn’t a great matchup for the Cougars. For the first time in the Dave Rose era, the Cougars have lost to the same team three times in one season.

BYU shot just 31.7 percent from the field and 23.5 percent from 3-point range. The most efficient game from a Cougar starter came from Yoeli Childs, who scored eight points on 4-of-9 shooting. Eric Mika, TJ Haws, Nick Emery and Elijah Bryant combined for 34 points on 12-of-42 shooting.

It really wasn’t pretty.

At one point, ESPN’s Dave O’Brien said “Some rare offense here for the Cougars.”

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O’Brien said that after Bryant hit one free throw partway through the second half. That’s how nasty things got.

With the loss, the Cougars NCAA Tournament dreams were shattered. BYU is all but a lock for the NIT, and most of the NIT bracketology has the Cougars as a No. 3 seed, which means more games in the Marriott Center.

With any luck, the BYU that went to Spokane shows up for those games.

The bracket will be revealed this Sunday.