BYU Basketball: Takeways from the defensive collapse at San Diego State

BYU Basketball fell behind early and couldn’t come back against San Diego State, keeping the Cougars winless on the road.

A different week, same old story.

Just like last week’s loss to UNLV, BYU Basketball allowed San Diego State to jump out to a huge first half lead and couldn’t climb back for the win falling to the Aztecs 90-81.

For a second straight game BYU’s perimeter defense was completely ineffective in the first half, but this time it wasn’t much better after the half either.

The Cougars still haven’t won a true road game this season, and their next chance to change that will be even tougher when they take on No. 17 Mississippi State next Saturday.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the loss:

‘Ole’ Defense

It’s time to admit that BYU struggles mightily with their perimeter defense. After allowing a poor-shooting UNLV team to torch them from beyond the arc last week, they let an excellent-shooting San Diego State team to torch them even worse this week.

The Aztecs hit 12 of their 26 threes, but also did a great job of beating BYU off the dribble and breaking down the Cougar defense completely.

Until BYU can improve their perimeter defense they’re going to continually lose to the good teams they play.

Another Slow Start

The Aztecs went on a 23-4 run early in the game, causing the Cougars to have to play catch-up the rest of the game.

From there BYU played well, but the damage was done.

Killer Turnovers

BYU has been good at taking care of the ball this season, but they certainly weren’t on Saturday. They turned it over 18 times, and most of those turnovers led to easy Aztec buckets.

Strangely, Yoeli Childs was the biggest culprit. He struggled when double-teamed and turned it over six times.

Flustered Childs

Those six turnovers weren’t the Cougar big man’s only struggles in the game. Childs finished with 11 points on 3-7 shooting. He played too fast and flustered, and for the first time in recent memory BYU played better while he was on the bench.

Hot Shooting

BYU shot the ball well against the Aztecs. If it wasn’t for the 18 turnovers they would have been right in the game. The Cougars shot 53.4% from the field, 38.1% from three, and 84.6% from the free throw line.

The only two players to shoot less than 40% from the field were Nick Emery (3-8) and Zac Seljaas (0-1).

Not-so-hot Shooting

On the bright side, Jashire Hardnett hit his first three-pointer in more than a month. On the not-so-bright side he proceeded to miss his next three shots from distance, and they weren’t particularly close.

More from Lawless Republic

Defenses are daring him to shoot, and if he can’t make them pay he’s a liability on offense.

Of course, he banked in a three late in the game, so maybe he’s found a new secret weapon…

Bench Support

The Cougars got good bench support on Saturday. Luke Worthington had his best game of the season, with 11 points and five rebounds. Rylan Bergersen also impressed, adding six points and two rebounds.

And Kolby Lee may have earned himself more playing time. The freshman big man scored five points on 2-2 shooting and added two rebounds in just five minutes.

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