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BYU Basketball: How the Cougars can take down St. Mary’s on Saturday

By Shaun Gordon

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 05: Jordan Ford #30 of the Saint Mary's Gaels guards TJ Haws #30 of the Brigham Young Cougars during a semifinal game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena on March 5, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Cougars won 85-72. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 05: Jordan Ford #30 of the Saint Mary's Gaels guards TJ Haws #30 of the Brigham Young Cougars during a semifinal game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena on March 5, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Cougars won 85-72. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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LAS VEGAS, NV – MARCH 05: Jordan Ford #30 of the Saint Mary’s Gaels guards TJ Haws #30 of the Brigham Young Cougars during a semifinal game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena on March 5, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Cougars won 85-72. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV – MARCH 05: Jordan Ford #30 of the Saint Mary’s Gaels guards TJ Haws #30 of the Brigham Young Cougars during a semifinal game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena on March 5, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Cougars won 85-72. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

BYU Basketball finally has a road win, but they’ve got one more game to go before returning to Provo. This one’s against rival St. Mary’s.

The result of BYU Basketball’s win over Pacific on Thursday could best be described as a sigh of relief.

With the win, the Cougars finally have a true road victory. It also snapped their three-game losing streak (two of those losses weren’t even close) and gave BYU a win in their West Coast Conference opener.

Now they’ll have a quick turnaround, staying on the road for one more game at St. Mary’s on Saturday night.

A win over the Gaels would give BYU a perfect opening weekend, and the conference looks like it will be a slugfest for every team not named Gonzaga.

Plus, who doesn’t enjoy beating St. Mary’s? It’s a safe bet that the Gaels are the least liked WCC team by a majority of Cougar Nation.

But while St. Mary’s has struggled just as much as BYU has this year (both are 9-7), the Gaels will have home-court advantage and extra motivation after losing their conference opener to San Francisco.

The Cougars will have their work cut out for them if they’re going to pull off a second straight road win. Here’s what they’ll have to do to make it happen:

Don’t Reach

It’s time to accept the fact that the officials who cover WCC games really like hearing the sound of their whistles. Thursday’s win at Pacific was absolutely brutal to watch, as the teams combined for 60 fouls and 74 free throws.

BYU players should know by now that breathing on the opponent will be whistled, so reaching certainly will. Yet the Cougars kept taking swipes at the ball even as their foul count nearly overheated the scoreboards.

BYU will get called for a lot of fouls against St. Mary’s, and the Gaels will get whistled for plenty, too. The officials have no desire to let teams establish an offensive flow, but that doesn’t mean the Cougars need to help the refs out by reaching and opening themselves up for more calls.

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