BYU Cougars-Portland Pilots: Report card

PROVO — It took a while for the Cougars to pull away, but they finally did, beating Portland, 76-66, Saturday.

Grades are in for every position group and for the team as a whole.

Frontcourt

Brandon Davies had a monster game, dominating the course of play from the opening tip to the final buzzer. Davies scored 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting, doing his best to fill the void left by Noah Hartsock, who sat the game out due to injury.

Nate Austin was plagued with foul trouble for most of the first half and finished with just two points and two rebounds. The team could have used more from Austin in his effort to spell Hartsock in the front court.

Josh Sharp saw limited minutes off the bench. BYU coach Dave Rose went with a small lineup for most of the afternoon. Grade: B

Wings

Charles Abouo was solid in his final game at the Marriott Center. He finished with 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting and collected eight rebounds.

Brock Zylstra continued his trend of stepping up big against bad teams, scoring 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting while leading the team in rebounds with nine in his 37 minutes of play.

Anson Winder only attempted two shots in his 24 minutes and missed them both. Grade: B+

Point

Matt Carlino played much more like a point guard, attempting just eight shots and connecting on three of them for eight points while handing out eight assists.

Craig Cusick again struggled with his shot, missing all four of his attempts while handing out just a single assist in his 17 minutes of play. Grade: C+

Overall

Offensively, the team showed well, but wasn't able to shake a bad Portland team until late. BYU will have to play much better than it has showed over the past two games if it hopes to win the West Coast Conference tournament next week. Grade: B-

Email: bgurney@desnews.com

Twitter: @BrandonCGurney