. The Cougars won their seventh straight.Josip Vrankic scored 28 points and collected 11 rebounds to lead the Broncos (18-10, 5-8). Tahij Eaddy added 11 points, all in the second half.BYU finished with a 41-32 advantage on rebounds.''I don't think that this crew has it in our DNA to be a dominant rebounding team,'' Pope said. ''But we have to be able to compete and the guys did a nice job on the glass.'' Santa Clara opened the second half on a 10-2 run and made it a one-possession game when Trey Wertz and Keshawn Justice sank back-to-back 3-pointers to cut BYU's lead to 42-40.The Broncos took only their second lead of the game at 49-47 when Eaddy made a 3-pointer for his first basket. Santa Clara went 4-of-4 from long-distance through the first seven minutes of the second half after making only one 3-pointer before halftime.''I thought, for the most part, we played the right way throughout the game,'' Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek said. ''Early on, the ball wasn't going down for us. As we got more comfortable, we made more shots.'' The Broncos missed 12 of their first 15 shots from the field. It opened the door for BYU to surge ahead once the Cougars worked out of their own slow start. BYU scored on five straight possessions to carve out a 17-6 lead midway through the first half. Childs punctuated a 9-0 run with back-to-back layups.The Broncos scored their first 10 baskets in the paint before Jalen Williams broke the ice from the perimeter to cut BYU's lead to 34-26. Santa Clara could not get the deficit under double digits again before halftime. Haws hit four free throws -- interrupted only by a layup from Childs -- to push the Cougars' lead to 40-28.FREE THROW KINGHaws went 12-of-12 from the free throw line. He's made 28 straight free throws going back to BYU's 107-80 victory over Pepperdine on January 31. The senior made one fewer free throw than Santa Clara did as a team.He was converting 73.5 percent from the line for the season coming into the game and has seen major improvement on his free throws since the Cougars began WCC play.''I'm shooting extra ones after practice,'' Haws said. ''I think my confidence has gone up a little bit. Sometimes, you need to get into a rhythm at the free throw line.'' JERSEY SWITCHZac Seljaas had to change jerseys after ripping the chest on his jersey late in the first half. Seljaas subbed out with 5:38 left in the half and changed from No. 2 to No. 20 for the remainder of the game.THE BIG PICTURESanta Clara: The Broncos hung tough by getting to the basket after an early shooting drought. That opened things up on the perimeter, which allowed Santa Clara to stay in the game until the final minutes.BYU: A rare off-night from the perimeter put the Cougars into a dogfight for the better part of the second half. BYU dodged an upset loss by making stops at critical junctures down the stretch.POLL IMPLICATIONSBYU didn't hurt its spot in the Top 25 and can help it significantly if it can score an upset victory over No. 2 Gonzaga on Saturday.UP NEXTSanta Clara visits Pacific on Saturday.BYU hosts No. 2 Gonzaga on Saturday.---More college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/-Top25-30-)
Feb 19, 2020For the first time in nearly 10 years, the BYU Cougars are ranked in the Top 25.In his first year, head coach Mark Pope has guided the Cougars to a 21-7 record, and on Monday his squad was rewarded with a No. 23 ranking. The last time BYU was ranked was at the end of the 2010-2011 season, when the Cougars finished at No. 10.The Cougars (10-3 West Coast Conference) have won six straight and look to win their seventh straight game when Santa Clara visits Provo on Thursday night.The Broncos (18-9, 5-7) have lost three straight and are 3-5 on the road this season. BYU sports a 12-1 record at the Marriott Center.Fans around the country might not be familiar with BYU forward Yoeli Childs, but he's no secret to teams in the WCC.Childs averages 20.7 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. He makes 59.4 percent of his field-goal attempts. When the Cougars need a basket, Childs usually comes through in the clutch.Against San Diego on Saturday, Childs rescued the Cougars with an alley-oop dunk with 11 seconds left that gave BYU a 72-71 win over the Toreros."I'm just so proud of our guys. These guys deserve it. Just because you deserve something doesn't mean you're going to get it," Childs told the Deseret News. "That was a battle. San Diego came out swinging, and they played a great game. But I'm just proud of our guys and it feels great." BYU is making a habit of winning in the final seconds. The Cougars now have won three games this season on game-winning shots with 12 seconds or less left to play."I was super nervous about [the San Diego game]," Pope said. "With Dalt [Nixon] being out -- it's the first time we played a game without him -- and just where we are in the season right now. ... I'm just proud of my guys for gutting it out." Nixon was hurt in the win against LMU, and the Cougars will be without his 7.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game for a few weeks at least.The Broncos are coming off a six-point loss to Loyola Marymount. In a game that saw 15 lead changes, it was the Broncos who couldn't close out LMU in the final 10 minutes.Josip Vrankic led the Broncos with 17 points. Jaden Bediako had 11 rebounds."We have a balanced team, a team that does a great job sharing the basketball, moving the basketball," coach Herb Sendek recently said. "Our guys continue to play unselfish. Different guys have stepped up. But the key is guys are really playing together." The Broncos will need to get back to that style of basketball against a superior BYU team if they have a chance for an upset. BYU averages 80 points per game and 17.7 assists per game.BYU ranks No. 1 in the country in 3-point field-goal percentage at 42.6 percent, having made 304 of 714 attempts.The Cougars' 3-point acumen was on display in a win last week against LMU, when they set a school record by making 18 3-pointers.The Broncos average 76.1 points per game and make 36 percent of their 3-point attempts.Trey Wertz and Vrankic are Santa Clara's leading scorers at 11.9 points per game. Four others average between 10.9 and 8.2 points per game.--Field Level Media
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