BYU men's basketball: Cougars extend win streak to 14

PROVO — While the pace was frenetic and bumpy at times, BYU's Tyler Haws was calm amid the storm.

Facing a Wyoming team enamored with trapping and creating havoc in the backcourt, the true freshman guard poured in a career-high 24 points to lead the No. 14 Cougars to a 81-66 victory Wednesday night at the Marriott Center.

BYU has now won 14 consecutive games and improved its overall record to 19-1, matching the best start in school history through 20 games — originally set during the 1987-88 season.

"It's something incredible," forward Noah Hartsock said of the winning streak. "Going into the season we expected big things because we had almost everyone coming back. We're just playing well right now. Some games are better than others. We've found a way to keep going on, to keep pushing. We see that in practice every day. We're still competing, we're still going hard. Everyone still wants to win."

Unlike BYU's 44-point rout of Colorado State last Saturday, Wyoming put up more of a fight against the Cougars. Employing a fast-paced, pressure-style defense, the Cowboys were able to keep BYU off-balanced for stretches in the first half.

"Wyoming did a good job taking us out of the things we like to do," said Cougar coach Dave Rose. "At times in the first half I thought they played on attack maybe better than us. It got us a little bit timid, but we were able to regroup. We did a good job handling their pressure. I give Wyoming a lot of credit for the way they were able to disrupt us. But we were able to win the game in the second half."

The Cougars led by eight at halftime, 41-33, but thanks to a 12-0 run early in the second half, they wrested control of the contest, going up 54-37.

"They're a pressuring team," Haws said of Wyoming. "In the first half, we were kind of tentative. You really have to play on attack and be the aggressors. We were able to do that more in the second half."

During that 12-0 spurt, Haws scored seven of those points — on a 3-pointer, a jumper and a putback. Playing a game-high 35 minutes, Haws shot 8-for-12 from the field, including 4-for-5 from 3-point territory. He also made all four of his free throw attempts and pulled down six rebounds.

"I wanted to come in and try and find my rhythm," said Haws. "I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates. They found me open and were able to drive and draw guys to them. I was open and able to knock some shots down."