Freshman Trevin Knell Shines In BYU’s Exhibition Win Over UT-Tyler

PROVO, Utah – BYU basketball concluded the exhibition season with a 100-58 victory over UT-Tyler, a transitional Division II program.

Friday night’s game was the lone exhibition of the season for first-year head coach Mark Pope’s team. The other exhibition was a closed scrimmage against Cal last week, that according to Pope and Cal head coach Mark Fox ended in a tie.

BYU’s offense had some early struggles against the Patriots but then started to pick it up after the under-four media timeout. BYU closed the first half on a 10-2 run to take a 40-19 halftime lead. But despite the sizable lead, the Cougars didn’t make a three-pointer the entire first half going 0-4 from deep in the first 20 minutes.

Final: #BYU 100, UT Tyler 58.

Trevin Knell scored 19 points to lead the Cougars in scoring. Dalton Nixon had 9 points and 8 rebounds.

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) November 2, 2019

That outside shooting picked up in the second half as BYU shot 9-13 from beyond the arc and it was led by a returned missionary in freshman Trevin Knell.

Knell, a former Woods Cross High standout, knocked down five three-pointers as part of his team-high 19 points on the evening.

“I made a big mistake. So our message at halftime was that we hadn’t got enough shots up and then Trevin Knell listened,” Pope said with a smile. “This cat was so excited to get shots up. I’m excited to coach. I recruited really, really hard for a really, really long time and now to get to coach him is pretty fun.”

Along with Knell’s hot shooting, graduate transfer Jake Toolson showed why he was the WAC Player of the Year while at Utah Valley University a year ago. Toolson with a smooth, confident style of play on the court dropped 17 points on 8-12 shooting from the field.

Good to be back in the Marriott Center for some #BYU Basketball. Cougars taking on UT-Tyler in exhibition play. Listen to the game on @kslnewsradio. pic.twitter.com/57uNJwb31N

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) November 2, 2019

BYU as a team ended up shooting 58.3-percent from the field and 52.9-percent from the three-point line. With senior leader Yoeli Childs out for the first nine games of the season, players such as Toolson and Knell will need to shoot the ball well without Childs down in the post.

Childs played 14 minutes in his last game action before he serves a nine-game suspension that will sideline him until December 4th when the Cougars take on rival Utah. Childs had eight points and three rebounds coming off the bench.

TJ Haws out with a sickness

BYU defeated UT-Tyler without senior guard TJ Haws. Haws was throwing up according to head coach Mark Pope and has been battling a sickness that has gone through the team the past few days.

Pope in the press conference then jokingly added Haws got sick while trick-or-treating last night after he took some candy from a home of Ute fans. See the clip for yourself.

#BYU guard TJ Haws was out tonight due to an illness.

Pope jokingly said Haws got sick taking candy last night from a home with Ute fans while trick-or-treating. 😂 🍬 🍭 @kslsports pic.twitter.com/fqQKlZcEIC

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) November 2, 2019

Season Opener

BYU opens the 2019-20 season on Tuesday against Cal State Fullerton. The Titans are from the Big West Conference. Last time BYU played Fullerton was 23 years ago during the 1-25 season.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.