BYU Basketball: How the Cougars can finally pick up a road win vs. San Diego St.

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LAS VEGAS, NV – MARCH 03: TJ Haws #30 of the Brigham Young Cougars drives to the basket against Isaiah Wright #22 of the San Diego Toreros during a quarterfinal game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena on March 3, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Cougars won 85-79. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

Start the Game Strong

Early in the season, BYU started games well offensively, then faded in the second half.

Recently, though, that script has flipped. In their last three games, the Cougars have averaged 35.7 points in the first half, compared to 44 points in the second.

And when you’re on the road you can’t afford to get behind early and play from behind. They did just that against UNLV last week and couldn’t make up the difference in the end.

BYU’s offense has worked best when they play inside-out, feeding Yoeli Childs in the post and letting him make plays. This year he’s done an excellent job of finding his teammates when being double-teamed (or triple-teamed). He’s second on the team this season with 37 assists. Only TJ Haws has more.

The Cougars have proven that they’re not going to effectively beat you from outside the paint on a nightly basis. Especially on the road.

If BYU stagnates on offense early and starts jacking up threes regularly, San Diego State will jump out to the same kind of lead that UNLV did last week.

That didn’t work well for the Cougars last week, and it won’t work any better this week.

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