Early Turnovers From BYU Lifts San Diego State To 90-81 Win

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The BYU Cougars couldn’t overcome the seven three-pointers scored early by the Aztecs and 10 early points scored on turnovers. They fall to San Diego State 90-81.

T.J. Haws led the Cougars with 18 points and 5 assists while hitting 7-of-13 from the field. Jahshire Hardnett added 12 points while Yoeli Childs and Luke Worthington scored 11 points apiece.

BYU had 18 turnovers with the Aztecs scoring 27 points off the Cougars’ turnovers. They finished the game shooting 53 percent from the field and 38 percent from downtown.

Devin Watson scored 23 points for San Diego State to go with 8 assists, he scored 14 points in the second half. Matt Mitchell had just four points in the second half but scored 18 in the first twenty minutes.

San Diego State hit 12-of-26 from deep for 46 percent and shot 52 percent from the field.

BYU Digs Deep Hole

The Aztecs took a 10-9 lead which quickly turned into an 8-0 run and an 18-9 lead with 15:45 left in the first half. San Diego State already had 10 points off of turnovers.

SDSU inflated their lead to 17 off of a 10-0 run to lead 28-11 with 12 minutes remaining, making the overall run 18-2 over a four minute stretch.

In the first ten minutes of the game, San Diego State hit seven of their first eight three-pointers and BYU connected on three of six from deep.

After the Aztecs led 33-13, BYU went on an 8-0 run to trail 33-21 with over 8 minutes left. San Diego State didn’t hit a field goal over a three minute stretch.

But that run didn’t last long as San Diego State outscored BYU 16-10 and held a 49-31 lead with 3:26 remaining in the first half.

The Aztecs ended the first half with a 52-38 lead. BYU committed 14 turnovers while San Diego State scored 23 points off of those miscues. Two players for SDSU were already scored in double figures in the first twenty minutes.

Mitchell had 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc for the Aztecs. Hemsley added 12 points on 4-of-8 field goal shooting. As a team, the Aztecs hit 9-of-17 three point attempts while BYU hit 5-of-12.

Childs finished the first half with 8 points for BYU while Hardnett added 7 points.

Cougars Had Sliver Of Hope

Each team exchanged scores in the first four minutes of the second half and BYU still trailed 62-47 with 15:58 left in the game.

The next 1:23 of the game, BYU went on a 6-0 on buckets from Haws, Nick Emery and Luke Worthington that forced San Diego State to call a timeout with a 65-53 lead with 14:08 left.

Worthington completed a three-point play and Emery nailed a three-pointer to trim the lead to single digits, 68-59 with less than 12 minutes to play.

BYU wouldn’t inch any closer as the Aztecs outscored the Cougars 14-11 to lead 82-70 with 3:56 left in the game.

The Cougars had one last attempt for a comeback but fell short when they scored 11 points and limited SDSU to 8 points in the last four minutes of the game.

Final.#BYUhoops pic.twitter.com/wCtKlG5ygg

— BYU Basketball (@BYUbasketball) December 23, 2018

Up Next

BYU fell to 8-6 on the season and have lost their last two games. They will finish their non-conference schedule on Saturday when they travel to Mississippi State. The Bulldogs are 11-1 and a ranked No. 17 in the country and are 8-0 at home.

The game will begin at 10 a.m. and will be broadcast on ESPNU and KSL Newsradio.