BYU Basketball: How the Cougars can steal a road win at San Francisco

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 05: Members of the San Francisco Dons band perform before the team's semifinal game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament against the Gonzaga Bulldogs at the Orleans Arena on March 5, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Bulldogs won 88-60. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 05: Members of the San Francisco Dons band perform before the team's semifinal game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament against the Gonzaga Bulldogs at the Orleans Arena on March 5, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Bulldogs won 88-60. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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LAS VEGAS, NV – MARCH 05: Nick Emery
LAS VEGAS, NV – MARCH 05: Nick Emery /

Win the Bench Battle

BYU’s bench had one of their strongest performances of the season on Thursday night. The Cougars’ bench outscored Pepperdine’s 29-9 in that game, led by 13 points from Baxter and nine from Zac Seljaas.

Yoeli Childs and TJ Haws have been consistently good both on the road and at home, but the rest of the team has been wildly inconsistent on the road.

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Nick Emery still hasn’t found his offensive groove, but he’s capable of getting hot.

Dalton Nixon is the ultimate hustle player who won’t go off on you offensively, but he’ll do the little things and pick up points here and there.

Rylan Bergersen has steadily improved as the season has progressed, both offensively and defensively. If he can start consistently hitting three-pointers he could become even more valuable.

Until Jashire Hardnett comes back from injury, those are the five players that will eat up a majority of the bench minutes. Each of them is capable, but each of them is inconsistent.

San Francisco averages 26.7 points per game from their bench unit, and BYU’s bench will need to keep up the same level of production if the Cougars want any chance of the road upset.