Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

BYU’s supporting cast comes up big in win over Utah State

mika

BYU has one of the nation’s best perimeter scoring tandems in Tyler Haws and Matt Carlino, with both capable of putting together highly productive nights on a consistent basis. They score in different ways, with Carlino being the more aggressive of the two when it comes to hunting for his shots and that can get him into trouble at times. But it works for the Cougars, who are off to a 6-2 start and are expected by many to be Gonzaga’s biggest threat in the WCC.

Against Utah State on Saturday night the Cougars needed more than those two to beat the Aggies, and three players stepped up to the plate in BYU’s 85-74 win at the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City. Eric Mika, who just over a week ago suffered an eye abrasion in a loss to Iowa State, tallied 15 points and nine rebounds as he more than held his own with Utah State’s Jarred Shaw (12 points, 13 rebounds). Mika’s helped BYU account for the graduation of Brandon Davies, and while the freshman isn’t required to score at the same rate as Davies his 13.1 points per game has given the Cougars a credible interior threat on the offensive end of the floor.

The other two players who stepped up against Utah State were guards Frank Bartley IV and Kyle Collinsworth. Collinsworth (seven points, 13 rebounds and eight assists) had his fingerprints all over this game, and his ability as a primary ball-handler and distributor allows Carlino to aggressively look for his shots. That was a role head coach Dave Rose envisioned for Collinsworth prior to the start of the season, and the guard has performed well through seven games.

As for Bartley he’s proven to be a valuable reserve for the Cougars along with wing Anson Winder, and he accounted for 14 points and five rebounds against Utah State. It was Bartley who sparked the BYU rally that allowed the Cougars to take control of the game in the second half, as he scored ten of his 14 points during a 29-11 stretch that gave BYU a 12-point lead with 3:39 remaining.

Mika, Collinsworth and Bartley won’t be primary scorers for BYU and that’s fine due to the presence of Carlino and Haws. But in order for the Cougars to be at their best that supplementary trio will need to be productive, especially in games like Saturday’s. And on Saturday night, they showed that they’re more than capable of helping to carry the load.

Follow @raphiellej