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BYU Basketball: What we learned from the Houston loss

By Shaun Gordon

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - DECEMBER 2: Head coach Dave Rose of the Brigham Young Cougars looks on in the first half against the Utah Utes at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on December 2, 2015 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - DECEMBER 2: Head coach Dave Rose of the Brigham Young Cougars looks on in the first half against the Utah Utes at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on December 2, 2015 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images) /
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The offense failed to show up for BYU Basketball on Saturday against Utah, spoiling the Cougars’ chance for a resume-builder for March.

BYU Basketball missed out on a golden opportunity on Saturday, and it may come back to haunt them.

The Cougar offense disappeared in the second half in a 76-62 loss to Houston. The game was one of BYU’s few home matchups against a top-tier opponent, and a win would have looked good come March.

But aside from TJ Haws the offense failed to show up after the half while Houston shot the ball efficiently, quelling BYU’s chance for the resume-building win.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the loss:

Haws on an Island

The only player who played well consistently throughout was TJ Haws. He finished with 25 points and hit 6-12 from behind the arc, adding three assists and had zero turnovers.

Unfortunately, aside from Yoeli Childs in the first half, no other Cougar player scored more than five points, and the rest of the team combined to go 2-16 from distance.

Doubling Childs

Late in the first quarter Houston started double-teaming Yoeli Childs whenever he touched the ball. In previous games he’s made smart decisions in that situation, but Houston managed to fluster him.

He turned it over twice and forced bad shots, largely ineffective from that point on.

Supporting No-Show

Haws and Childs scored 41 points combined. The rest of the team scored 21 combined.

You can’t win ballgames with only two players scoring, especially against top-tier teams. This is one of those games that the Cougars wished they had Nick Emery…

Small-Ball Failure

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Early in the second half Dalton Nixon picked up his third foul, and Dave Rose decided to play small-ball, subbing in Rylan Bergersen. Houston promptly went on a 19-6 run to blow the game open, dominating on the boards and racking up second-chance points.

Closing Out

While BYU’s defense has been solid this season, they’ve struggled to close out on shooters in time to bother the shot. That hadn’t hurt the Cougars against worse opponents this season, but Houston made them pay.

Saturday’s biggest guilty party for that was Childs. Whenever he was tasked to guard Houston’s Cedrick Alley Jr. he failed to close out, allowing the stretch-four to hit five of his eight three-pointers.

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