Cougars downed by San Francisco, 82-63

SAN FRANCISCO – The BYU men's basketball team fell to San Francisco 82-63 Saturday night at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center.

"It was a tough night for our guys," BYU head coach Dave Rose said. "They were just better. It was a tough night all the way around. The most important thing now is to get home and have the guys continue to progress and believe in themselves. There is a lot of ball to play and I think this team has real potential."

Yoeli Childs scored in double-figures with 25 points while grabbing four rebounds and one steal. TJ Haws contributed 12 points, two assists and one rebound. Zac Seljaas led the team with seven boards while scoring five points.

The Cougars got on the board first as Connor Harding finished at the rim before the Dons scored six-straight points for an early 6-2 lead.

With under 15 minutes on the clock and BYU down 13-7, Haws hit a jumper while Seljaas and Childs hit treys to give the lead back to the Cougars 15-13.

San Francisco answered with a 16-0 run to take a 29-15 advantage with 8:11 remaining in the first half. A free throw from Rylan Bergersen ended the scoring drought and was followed with buckets by Seljaas and Childs to cut the deficit to 12, 33-21.

Haws scored eight consecutive points that included two 3-point conversions to bring the score to 41-29 but a Dons' dunk sent the Cougars into the locker room down 43-29.

After one half, BYU shot 35.5 percent from the field while San Francisco shot 65.5 percent. Haws scored in double figures with a total of 10 in the first half.

Childs scored the first five points for the Cougars in the second half, but the Dons' offense didn't slow down as they stayed on top by double digits. McKay Cannon drained a trey to make it a nine point game, 46-37 with 17 minutes left to play. 

Another trey by Cannon was followed by a Haws layup to cut into the score and bring it to 53-47 with 13:16 remaining.

Over the next 11 minutes San Francisco went on a 27-12 run to extend its lead to 80-59 with Childs scoring all 12 points for BYU. Gavin Baxter and Bergerson scored the final four points for the Cougars as the Dons secured their victory.

On the night, BYU shot 44.2 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from 3 and 68.8 percent from the free throw line. San Francisco recorded a 63.6 percent from the field, 47.4 percent from beyond the arc and 60 percent from the charity stripe.

The Cougars return to the Marriott Center as they host Saint Mary's on Thursday, Jan. 24, at 9 p.m. MST. The game will be covered on ESPN2 while audio broadcasts can be heard on BYU Radio (Sirius XM 143/89.1 FM), BYU Sports Network and KSL 1160 AM/102.7 FM.

Game Notes

Yoeli Childs finished with 25 points, his fifth-straight game scoring 20-plus points and 14th this season. He now has 29-career 20-point games. Childs has scored in double figures in 27-straight games.

McKay Cannon hit three 3-pointers, a career high. He finished with nine points, one rebounds and one assists.

Postgame Quotes

BYU guard McKay Cannon

On tonight’s game

We battled back but anytime you are on the road and give up a 16-0 run it will be very hard to win. Hats off to them, I don’t know what happened in that stretch, but it wasn’t us.

On Yoeli’s second half

He showed for a little bit that he’s human. He’s been lights out but that happens, that’s life. We did our best to make do but he came back in the second half and was Yoeli again.

BYU head coach Dave Rose

On San Francisco’s atmosphere

It was a tough night for our guys. When you take a look at the feel of this gym tonight compared to what it was the last seven years, it’s completely different. A lot of the games we played in here it was mostly our fans.

On tonight's performance

Tonight, we just got really sped up on offense. During that time, it seemed that we took worse and worse shots. We didn’t get back defensively, and they scored in transition. They put that run together and then we try to stop it, play even and make a run of your own. They were just better. It was a tough night all the way around.

On moving forward

The most important thing now is to get home and have the guys continue to progress and believe in themselves. There is a lot of ball to play and I think this team has real potential. You’ve got to continue to win because the confidence is so important with these guys and you need that positive reinforcement.