BYU basketball: Emery, Haws lead Y. to blowout victory

PROVO — It hasn't taken the BYU Cougars very long to reap the rewards of their Lone Peak High connection.

Behind a strong first half finish Tuesday night, keyed by the defense, rebounding and shooting of former Lone Peak stars Jackson Emery and Tyler Haws, the Cougars took a comfortable lead into intermission and then widened the gap in the second half, thanks to another spark from Emery, en route to an 87-53 win over Idaho State at the Marriott Center.

The win improves BYU's record to 2-0 on the young season, with the Cougars now heading over to Hawaii for a late Friday night battle with the Rainbow Warriors.

"We got better tonight, and that's a good sign," Cougars coach Dave Rose said.

Once again, Jimmer Fredette led the Cougars in scoring with a game-high 22 points, but Emery was close behind with 19. And an individual 8-0 run by Emery in the first half and his back-to-back 3-pointers to end a Bengals' rally in the second half were the two key stretches in BYU's win. Emery also had a team-high seven rebounds, dished out three assists and had his usual three steals.

"That's the way we've always been taught and that's our background as far as coming from Lone Peak. That's kind of how (Lone Peak coach Quincy Lewis) taught us," Emery said. "A lot of energy and just create things, and we've just kind of carried that over to this program."

Emery, who made only 3-of-18 shots in BYU's two exhibition games and last week's win over Bradley, also lit it up from outside - making 5-of-8 from 3-point range.

"You've got to let it come to you, and when it's your turn to take the shot you've got to step up and hit it," Emery said.

In the early going the Bengals matched BYU punch-for-punch, and actually led 14-11 seven minutes into the game. But when Haws came off the bench and scored seven first-half points, grabbed four first-half rebounds, dished out three first-half assists, blocked two shots and added a steal, the Cougars quickly pulled away and finished the first half on a 32-10 run to lead 43-24 at the break.

"One thing we learned growing up was just to play hard and to bring some energy when you get in the game, and to make plays and make good things happen, and I felt like we were able to do that in the first half," Haws said.

Rose also felt that the energy provided by Haws and Emery, and also by Michael Loyd off the bench, was contagious in how the Cougars attacked on both offense and defense.