BYU Basketball: What we learned from the Portland State win

BYU Basketball finished their 2018 home slate with a win over Portland State. TJ Haws’ monster game gives the Cougars momentum heading into their road stretch.

Let the four-week road trip begin.

BYU Basketball played their final home game of 2018 on Wednesday night, taking down Portland State 85-66.

Their next five games will all come on the road over a four-week stretch: UNLV, San Diego State, Mississippi State, Pacific, and St. Mary’s.

By the time the Cougars return to the Marriott Center they’ll likely either be back on track in terms of their NCAA Tournament resume, or that resume will be all but decimated.

But BYU picked up a necessary win against the Vikings before their tough stretch begins, and here are the biggest takeaways from the victory:

Turnover Battle Win

Something had to give. Portland State forces a lot of turnovers, and BYU doesn’t turn it over much, so the turnover battle was going to play into this game in a big way.

The Cougars won that battle. They only turned it over 12 times, and many of those came because BYU tried to get too fancy rather than being bothered by the Viking defense.

On the flip side, BYU forced 21 turnovers, beating Portland State at their own game.

Yoeli’s Illness

According to Greg Wrubell, Yoeli Childs has been battling illness and wasn’t 100% on Wednesday night. That helps explain his quiet night (by his standards) of just 13 points and 10 rebounds on 4-8 shooting.

Haws Takeover

Fortunately for the Cougars, TJ Haws made up for Childs’ dip in production. The junior guard broke his career scoring mark with 30 points, and he did it on 60% shooting and 50% three-point shooting. He also added five assists and three rebounds.

Seven-point Play

One key moment in the game came midway through the first half.

With the Cougars up 10, two Vikings received technical fouls, which gave Haws four free throws. He made those, made a basket on the ensuing play, get fouled, and hit another free throw.

Seven points in one possession for Haws, and the lead ballooned to 17.

Distance Woes

If you take Haws out of the equation, the rest of the team shot an abysmal 2-11 from three. If the Cougars want to win their upcoming road games they’re going to have to see their role players improve their shooting in a big way.

Layup Drill

An aggressive Zac Seljaas is a welcome sight. He’s shown much more willingness to attack the basket in the last few games.

Now he just needs to work on making those shots at the rim that he’s getting.

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