BYU basketball: Cougars blow by pesky Texas Southern

BYU basketball’s non-conference finale ended in a blowout win over Texas Southern. Now the Cougars will begin West Coast Conference play.

BYU basketball picked up a 73-52 win over the Texas Southern Tigers on Saturday night in Provo. While the scoreboard shows a blowout win, the game told a much different story. The Cougars found themselves trailing at times in the first half.

Not only were they trailing, but they were trailing a Texas Southern team that was missing four players. However, BYU basketball did what it had to do.

Played defense and made shots.

By the 12 minute mark of the second half, BYU basketball opened up a 13-point lead. They only added to it from that point.

Yoeli Childs made just one shot in the first half, but finished with 19 points and eight rebounds. TJ Haws added 11 points. No other Cougar scored double-figures, but six different players scored at least five points.

Three Things We Learned

1. Team efforts get it done. The Cougars didn’t have a star on Saturday night, instead they got a little bit from a number of guys. All too often it was one guy last year that had to shoulder the load. Maybe it was Eric Mika, maybe Nick Emery. But this season is showing that the Cougars can get seven or eight players to really contribute. That will be extra important as WCC play begins.

2. Payton Dastrup is legit. After he spent most of last season on the bench (breaking out killer celebrations), expectations were low for Dastrup. But this season he’s showing why Ohio State was interested in him. He’s hitting 3-pointers at a better clip and has put together a stretch of back-to-back-to-back solid games.

3. On the bubble. With an 11-2 record, BYU basketball is squarely on the bubble. If the Cougars take care of business in conference play, it will be tough to imagine them missing the NCAA Tournament.