BYU holds on to beat Pacific 90-87 in WCC opener

A lot of new faces on this BYU team. Still integrating. Game was saved by Emery and Hardnet. They had a tough preseason, which may have damaged some confidence, but this was a good win.

As for all the foul calls, I didn't see many that should not have been called. Pacific is always a rough team.

Count the win and look for more progress.

I agree with idablu that it's going to be a long year unless something changes. BYU is just not consistent. They play great it one half and then squander it all the next. And you need more that just two good scorers. And you can't afford to throw away foul shot points. If BYU doesn't fix these problems, it will be a tough season to watch. If BYU can't beat teams like Pacific (no disrepect intended), and they almost didn't, how will they beat San Francisco and San Diego, not to mention Gonzaga.

Real Ute

BYU has owned U for over a decade in Basketball, winning 13 of the last 17, most by double digits, including this season.

Road games are tough, no matter who you are playing. Good job Cougs

Real,
No BYU is not elite, in fact they are middle of the road but that middle of the road team destroyed your utsies from the mid major pac.

BYU lived by the three in the first half and almost died by it in the second. A team isn’t very good that wins only when its long-range shots are going in. It’s a little pathetic when the home team only fills 40% of its arena and half of those people are fans of the visiting team.

@ 83Ute,

Your sarcasm is duly noted fine sir! BYU is a Final Four team for sure next year with the Lone Deuce and eventually Croatia-bound Yoeli Childs. Just look at their "awesome" bench players too! BYU is elite!

BYU was very fortunate last night vs Pacific, a national power in every respect. Although the Y lost a 21 point lead, they actually shot 40% from the 3 point line..........a "true" miracle indeed. BYU hoops and football has such great talent according to their overwhelming worldwide fan base. I am really liking where BYU stands today in D1 athletics, especially their elite football and basketball programs.

To those who blame poor officiating: BYU shot nearly as many see throws as Pacific. Pacific made most of theirs, BYU missed more of theirs.

Officiating was about equal - UOP shot 38 foul shots; BYU shot 36. biggest difference here is that BYU missed too many, including front ends.

Kudos to Jashire; he carried the team in the second half during a time when no one else could hit a shot.

Any win on the road is a good win so congrats to the Cougs. However, their defensive effort is embarrassing! I just don't understand why it is not emphasized a tiny bit more.

That was a good win for BYU last night. Pacific is much better than they have been in the past. I think BYU is a better team than most give them credit for. If they can keep Yoeli another year and the Lone Peak guys, I still think a Final Four is in reach as we were told would happen when the LP guys signed up to play.

I'll give credit for Haws scoring 24 points. He also took a couple of very ill advised 3-pt shots.
I'll give the game ball to Jahshire Hardnett. He is the only player that knows how to drive to the basket, finish shots and get to the foul line.
Keep Childs in the post, please.
Teach our 3 point shooters how to follow a shot.
McKay Cannon was a bulldog on defense in this game.
Good luck Saturday!
Go Cougars.

Great win guys despite the poor referees. Keep it up.

"So why can't BYU produce stronger teams?"

Four words: Honor - Code - Football - Independence

I didn't watch the game, so I can't comment on the officiating. However, I think it's pretty well accepted that college refs call way too many fouls, especially offensive fouls. They've made college basketball almost unwatchable.

Pacific has a student body about 3500.
A field house that seats 6,000.
Their team took BYU to the wire despite a phenomenal three point first half for BYU.
The entire WCC has this situation. An audience of less than 10,000 is almost embarrassing for BYU. The student body is 30,000.
So why can't BYU produce stronger teams?

BYU basketball is a tough watch, but kudos to the men for getting a win on the road.

I saw in Emery when he made those last two free throws the will not to lose. I couldn't believe the atrocious calls by the refs. Phantom calls and then the crashing the board over the back non-calls. Anyway BYU needs to be a better free throw shooting team, consistently. The defense for most of the first half needs to be for the entire game if they are going to win their road games.

Nice to see some confident 3 point shooting early on. Great effort by the defense in the 2nd half when the shots were not falling so easily. Good win Cougars.

Maybe this is the start of something. Glad BYU's athletic guard saved the day in the second half. Appreciate the team's effort in at the end of the game.

Now for a little criticism. Team is still performing well below their potential. Team did not defend or rebound well. A repeat theme here. But glad to see Coach Rose at least not playing 4 guards and a forward the entire time. Not mentioning names so the D News will publish this. One forward, who has not played in recent games was taken to the rack multiple times. And their starting freshman completely disappeared in the second half with poor shooting. Poor free throw shooting and several bad shots in the second half almost sunk the team last night.

I know one pro bound player is trying to expand his outside game for pro scouts, but please not at the expense of the team. Awful shot selection. Just stay underneath. The main shooting guard saved the day this time after a few bad games including something like a 5 for 17 outing (hard for a team to overcome this sort of frequent bad shooting in recent games and just keep on shooting until you make it I guess), but his free throw shooting was less than good.

I’m not one to complain about officiating but it seems the refs did everything in their power to hand the game to Pacific. At least half the fouls called against BYU were just atrocious.
That being said, BYU almost lost it at the foul-line. Hardnett came through clutch from the foul line with no help from the rest of the team.

It was a good win, but I still think it’s going to be a long year. When the 3’s aren’t falling, this BYU squad has very little to fall back on.