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PROVO — Two teams headed in opposite directions meet Thursday night in Provo, and the BYU Cougars seek to extend their winning streak to three games, while visiting Santa Clara tries to stop a six-game skid.
BYU, which has won all four games against Santa Clara since joining the West Coast Conference and has won the last nine meetings with the Broncos overall, has won the first two games of a current four-game homestand, improving coach Dave Rose's team to 7-4 in conference play and a tie for second place in the WCC. Kerry Keating's Santa Clara club has dropped into a tie for last place at 3-8 in league play.
Rose says he is very surprised that the Broncos are struggling the way they are presently, noting that "it was a team that went to Portland and beat Portland and won at St. Mary's, so obviously it's a team capable of going out on the road and putting a game together."
"Hopefully we're prepared," Rose said after Wednesday's Marriott Center practice, "and hopefully our guys are ready to go. Our players understand the challenge."
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In their meeting with the Broncos Jan. 18 at Santa Clara, BYU recorded its best shooting performance of the season, hitting 62 percent of its shots from the field in winning, 91-81: "We played one of our better offensive games of the season against them the last time we played them," said Rose.
It was a game in which leading scorer Tyler Haws missed all but the opening minute of the first half after picking up two early fouls. In Haws' absence, Anson Winder came off the bench to score 16 first-half points to help stake the Cougars to a 47-30 halftime lead.
"I hope that doesn't happen again," Rose said of Haws' foul trouble on the road. "That was a tough situation for him and for us, but it was pretty easily managed because of (Winder's) effort defensively and then how effective he was on the offensive end.
"Ty was really good in the second half of that game (Haws finished with 16 points), and has been really good since. He has been on a nice little run," Rose said.
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Indeed, Haws has averaged 35.5 points per game over the last four games, shooting 53 perent from the field, 58 percent from the arc and 87 percent from the stripe in that stretch.
"I feel really good where with my game is right now," said Haws on Wednesday. "I'm feeling confident and like I'm in a pretty good rhythm, and I feel like I'm making steps on the defensive end. I'm feeling pretty comfortable right now."
While Rose would prefer that his team be in a more comfortable position in the conference title chase (BYU is three games back of league-leading Gonzaga), he is proud of the way his squad has bounced back from consecutive road losses to win two straight home games and improve the Cougars seeding prospects with the conference tournament, which is only four weeks away.
"With what we've been through as a group, their attitude is really good," says Rose. "I think it's a really resilient group of guys that has been through some really tough challenges and responded to them pretty well.
"The most important thing is the next game we play. We all feel pretty good coming off a good week last week where we won two home games against two pretty good teams, and we'll find out a lot more about our team (Thursday)," Rose said. "We were really successful the last time we played (Santa Clara). We'll see how we respond in the effort and energy and urgency level that we play with (Thursday) night."
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The Broncos are the worst shooting team in conference play at 42 percent from the field, but do feature two of the league's top four scorers in freshman Jared Brownridge and junior Brandon Clark, who combined for 50 points in Santa Clara's home loss to BYU.
"Obviously, we have to contain those a guards a lot better than we did the last game," said Haws. Of Brownridge's 30-point effort against the Cougars, Haws acknowledged that, "I think he surprised us in how fast he can score."
Noting that Brownridge scored 16 of his 30 points in the final 5:42 of the game, Haws said "he can get hot really quick. We can't let up for the whole game — all 40 minutes."
The Broncos fell to BYU while playing short-handed. Neither starting point guard Evan Roquemore nor starting forward John McArthur played against the Cougars for disciplinary reasons. Roqumore is Santa Clara's all-time assist leader and a 1,500-point scorer.
"He brings experience to that team," said Haws of Roquemore. "He's a great shooter, really athletic and so we've got to know where he is on the floor."
Roquemore is averaging 11.2 points per game in league play while primarily coming off the bench in recent games. McArthur is averaging 3.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per contest in WCC games.
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Fans can hear post-practice interviews with Rose, Haws, guard Matt Carlino and forward Nate Austin in "Cougar Cuts."
Thursday night's game airs on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM and BYU Radio (SiriusXM 143), starting with pregame coverage at 8 p.m.; tipoff is set for 9:05 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPNU.
