BYU basketball: Cougars rally to snag win against UTEP

EL PASO, Texas — Winning on the road, against a good team in a tough environment, is a pretty big challenge for any college basketball team.

But winning with your star player sick, and winning when committing 27 fouls and sending the opponent to the free-throw line 38 times, and winning when committing 22 turnovers, is really quite the accomplishment.

The No. 23 ranked BYU Cougars overcame all those obstacles Saturday night in holding off the UTEP Miners 83-77 at the Don Haskins Center. The win improves the Cougars to 16-1, and drops the Miners to 10-4. The loss is only the second this season for UTEP at home.

"This was a team effort for sure," freshman Tyler Haws said. "I mean, everyone stepped up."

The Cougars, with leading scorer Jimmer Fredette out after being diagnosed with mononucleosis, got the job done behind 20 points and 11 rebounds from Haws, 19 points off the bench from Jonathan Tavernari, 14 points from freshman center Brandon Davies off the bench, and a career-high nine assists from guard Jackson Emery.

"We don't know how long Jimmer is going to be out, and we have a lot of games ahead, so to win the first one without him is great for their confidence," Rose said of the many contributors to Saturday's win.

Late in the game it was looking like BYU might not have enough post players to finish the game, with the entire front line of Tavernari, Noah Hartsock, Chris Miles and Davies playing the final five minutes with four fouls each. Despite that harness, however, the Cougars, after opening up a 13-point lead early in the second half, held off several charges from the Miners.

"The way we had to guard them got us in foul trouble, but we needed all of them tonight. But our (post players) did a great job of guarding them and making them become perimeter," Rose said.

Early on it looked like the Miners' athleticism, size, speed and quickness were going to be too much for BYU's short-handed backcourt to handle. In fact, the Cougars started off turning the ball over as often as getting a good look at the basket.

"We love to play physical. That's how we practiced and that's how we play," Tavernari said.

Fortunately for BYU, Haws settled the team down by scoring BYU's first six points to give the Cougars a 6-3 lead.

"Most importantly when they start pressing we need to make them pay. We need to get the ball up the court and try to get to the basket," Haws said.