BYU basketball: Cougs look to bounce back vs. Dons

PROVO — As tough as it was to lose on Wednesday at Utah State, the BYU Cougars understand the best thing they can do now is move forward and correct the things that led to their disappointing shooting performance in Logan.

"We want to win every game, but hopefully we can learn from this and be a better team," Cougar coach Dave Rose said after BYU's 71-61 defeat to the Aggies.

Rose is optimistic his team, which began the year with five straight wins, will respond positively to its first defeat.

"There aren't too many teams that go through an entire basketball season without getting beat. The key is that when you do get beat to not get beat again. So that will be our challenge right now," Rose said.

The Cougars get little rest before that challenge begins with a game today against San Francisco at EnergySolutions Arena. The quick turnaround is similar to what the Cougars will see once Mountain West Conference play begins in January.

"You have to be able to identify the things you need to work on and be able to implement it in practice and start to see improvement," Rose said.

In Wednesday's loss the Cougars shot only 31 percent in the second half and made only four field goals in the final 10 minutes. In practice Thursday and Friday, the Cougars focused on better execution in the half-court sets — like ball movement and offensive patience.

"We need to share the ball a little bit better and we need to play through the post," Rose said. "We need to have a little more confidence in each other, and just be able to when we get in situations where we aren't making baskets that we can figure out ways to get points in other ways. Get to the free-throw line or an easy basket in transition, or make a defensive play so you can score the ball."

The hostile environment and opponent energized by the home crowd, which the Cougars found in Logan, are things they will face in many of their road games this season.

"We're going to have a lot of different games like that in a lot of different settings, so we just have to execute our game plan a little bit better and have a little bit more energy," junior guard Jimmer Fredette said. "One thing we know is that we're going to get every team's best game, so we're going to have to go out and play our best game every single time."