BYU men's basketball notebook: Big men come up small against Lobos

ALBUQUERQUE — When examining the statistics, and considering BYU's inside-out offensive philosophy, a little more contribution from the post would have gone a long way in helping the Cougars' cause Wednesday night.

In the 76-72 loss to New Mexico, BYU's three centers — Chris Miles, Brandon Davies and James Anderson — scored only one point combined, pulled down seven rebounds between them and turned the ball over four times.

"When you're playing a really tough opponent, you have to play well," BYU coach Dave Rose said.

From the very beginning, the three big guys had problems with New Mexico's big and athletic front line. The Lobos had eight early offensive rebounds, finished the first half with 10 and tallied 16 for the game.

For the most part, the Cougars adjusted well to their offensive rebounding problem, but BYU's big guys failed to avoid foul problems, which really affected how the Cougars guarded the ball screens up top.

At halftime, Davies and Anderson had three fouls each in a combined eight minutes on the court. Miles had two fouls at the break, and picked up his third just two minutes into the second half.

Picking up the slack were starting forward Noah Hartsock, who finished the game playing the center position, and reserve forward Jonathan Tavernari. Hartsock scored 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting and had a team-high seven rebounds.

Tavernari hit several key shots for the Cougars and scored 17 points off the bench on 5-of-11 shooting. He also pulled down four rebounds.

"I've been around long enough to know that I just need to do what the team needs me to do," Tavernari. "Tonight I was able to score some points, but if we need someone to come in and give us a lift rebounding or playing defense, then that's what I need to do."

BYU's 38.1 percent shooting from the floor was even slightly worse than the Cougars' only other loss of the season at Utah State, where they shot 38.9 percent.

But, for the most part, the Cougars made up for that shooting deficiency with effort. In fact, their scrappy personality helped them plow through their toughest shooting game of the year and still be in position late to win.

"You want to win every game you play, but I think that our guys competed and competed hard. We had a chance to win, but it just didn't happen," Rose said.