BYU Basketball: Defense disappears against Weber State

Make it three straight losses for BYU Basketball as the Cougars fell at Weber State Saturday night for the first time in 15 years.

Boy does BYU Basketball need Nick Emery.

But the Cougars may have sunk their season before the suspended junior can even play his first game.

BYU lost their third straight game, falling at Weber State 113-103 in a game where both teams forgot how to play defense.

The Cougars played well offensively, breaking the century mark and actually hitting their threes at a reasonable clip (35.7%), but the Wildcats shot lights out from deep (11-25 for 44%) and BYU’s defense had no answer either inside or outside the arc.

Offensively BYU played arguably their best game of the season. Yoeli Childs led the team with 31 points and seven rebounds, Jashire Hardnett added 24 points, and eight Cougars scored at least seven points in the loss.

But when you allow a team to score 66 points in a half, especially the second half, even a good offensive performance isn’t enough.

This is head coach Dave Rose’s first ever loss to Weber State, and it’s BYU’s first loss to the Wildcats since 2003.

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While Weber State is a good basketball team, this will almost certainly be a bad loss on BYU’s NCAA Tournament resume.

This loss, coupled with the Cougars’ inability to beat any of the good teams they’ve played this year, leaves BYU very little room for error throughout the rest of the season if they want to reach their goal of returning to the NCAA Tournament.

BYU will have some games coming up that can help the resume, including games against Utah, UNLV, San Diego State, and Mississippi State before West Coast Conference play even begins. But so far the Cougars haven’t shown the ability to beat teams of that caliber.

Maybe Emery will help turn that around, but any turnaround for the Cougars will have to come quickly or their tournament hopes will be gone before Christmas.

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