Down 44 At One Point, BYU Knocked Out Of WCC Tournament
Mar 10, 2019, 12:36 AM | Updated: 8:22 am
Brigham Young Cougars guard McKay Cannon (24) is blocked from behind by San Diego Toreros guard Finn Sullivan (23) as BYU Cougars and San Diego Toreros play in WCC tournament action at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, March 9, 2019. (Scott Winterton, Deseret News)
(Scott Winterton, Deseret News)
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The BYU Cougars offered a historically poor performance in the quarterfinals of the West Coast Conference tournament. The Cougars lost 80-57 to San Diego and were bounced after just one game in the tournament.
Things started incredibly slow for the Cougars Saturday night. The Toreros, which BYU had beaten twice during the regular season, raced out to a 13-0 lead early in the first half.
BYU went over five minutes before finding the scoreboard in its conference tournament-opening game, missing its first six shots of the game.
Finally, Yoeli Childs converted on a little shot in the paint and BYU was on the board. As the night went on, the scoring didn’t pick up.
To put it in perspective, the Cougars scored just 24 points in the first half in what ended up being a 30-point loss to Gonzaga on Jan. 31. That was bad, but against San Diego on Saturday night, the Cougars were worse, turning in a season-low 19 points in the first half. They didn’t surpass the 24-point mark until the 14:22 mark of the second half.
The Cougars’ 27-point deficit at halftime was the fifth-biggest in program history as the Toreros took a 46-19 lead at the break.
The second half didn’t get any easier for the Cougars. Yoeli Childs’ technical foul at the 12:55 mark of the period served as the apex of frustration for BYU. Not long after the foul, the Toreros’ lead was stretched to 44 points, the highest of the game.
👌⬇️
Dominating performance.
Toreros earn first trip to the WCC Tournament semifinals since 2013.#GoToreros pic.twitter.com/XMxV9aYHtu
— San Diego Men's Basketball (@usdmbb) March 10, 2019
By The Numbers
Childs finished with 14 points on 6-for-18 shooting. TJ Haws turned in 10 points.
As a team, BYU was especially bad from beyond the arc, making just 1-of-17 attempts from beyond the arc.
Isaiah Piniero led the Toreros with 27 points.
Season Over For BYU?
San Diego will move to play Saint Mary’s in the semifinals of the conference tournament.
The season will go down as the worst yet in the Dave Rose-era for BYU. For the first time in the head coach’s tenure, BYU wrapped up the season with less than 20 wins. A berth in the NCAA Tournament is out of the question for the Cougars but they could possibly end up playing in a different, albeit, lesser postseason tournament.
