BYU men's basketball: Tyler Haws' 42-point performance lifts Cougars to easy win over Virginia Tech

The Cougars seized a big lead early. They went up 14-2, and extended that to 33-17 at the 10-minute mark of the first half. At one point in the first half, Haws had outscored Virginia Tech, 26-23, by himself.

At intermission, BYU led Virginia Tech, 56-31. Haws had 29 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field, and 6 of 8 from the 3-point line.

Meanwhile, Green had seven points at the half on 2-of-9 shooting. The Cougars outshot the Hokies, 60 percent to 30 percent, in the first 20 minutes.

"The key for us, we've gotten off to some good starts this year and we've kind of faded a little bit," Rose said. "We were pretty consistent the whole game. Our intensity level was good. Except for some missed rebound assignments, the first half was probably as well as we've played."

Virginia Tech played better in the second half, although BYU's lead ballooned to as many as 32 at the 15:21 mark. The Hokies battled back to within 18 with 7:33 remaining.

Over the final 20 minutes, Virginia Tech limited Haws to 13 points.

"We tried to go no-look, no-touch on him and try to get away from our help principles a little bit and try and not let him touch the ball as much," Johnson said about defending Haws in the second half. That’s kind of uncharacteristic of what we do but we tried to slow him down a little bit. It kept him from getting 60 tonight."

And Haws adjusted to Virginia Tech's defensive adjustments.

"You've got to stay aggressive and take what the defense gives you," he said. "I was trying to get other guys involved. (Davies) had a strong start to his second half. All of our guys played well, and this is a good team win."

It was an important victory for BYU in its final nonconference game before entering into West Coast Conference play next Thursday at home against Loyola Marymount.

"This is a great win for our team going into league play," Haws said.

Just how difficult is it to score 40 points?

"It's tough, but some nights you're just feeling it," Haws said. "It feels like that rim's really big. Those nights are fun."