This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

There was the shot that beat Texas in a tournament in Kansas City, and the jumper that almost beat Saint Mary's before Matthew Dellavedova's dagger, but the biggest shot of Tyler Haws' storied BYU career might have occurred late Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Haws hit an 18-foot jumper with 2.5 seconds remaining to give the Cougars a wild 78-76 win over Santa Clara.

"We didn't want the game to come down to that, but it is always fun to hit a shot like that and make a play for your team," Haws said of the game-winner. "But I am just really proud of our guys and the way we fought that second half. We weren't really ourselves that first half, but I think we found a little bit of ourselves in that second half and we were able to make some plays and win the game."

After the podium session, I asked Haws where he would rank that shot among his game-winners.

"It has to be up there somewhere," he said.

Just as Gonzaga had a chance to tie it with a half court shot at the buzzer last week, the Broncos' Brandon Clark got off a similar shot Saturday night. But it fell quite a bit short — Haws and Kyle Collinsworth said it was definitely on-line — and the Cougars escaped after blowing a five-point lead with 1:23 remaining.

"I felt like we had won the game a couple different times, and they just kept coming back and hitting threes to keep them in it.

We just had to make one more play, and I am just glad it went in," Haws said.

Clark (23 points) and Jared Brownridge (29 points) were sensational and brought the Broncos back time and again; For BYU, Haws finished with 30 and Collinsworth chipped in 15. The Cougars won the game at the free-throw line, getting there 38 times to just 15 for Santa Clara. Haws was 11 of 12 from the line and Corbin Kaufusi was 5 of 6 from the charity stripe and finished with seven points and seven rebounds in probably his best game as a Cougar.

BYU coach Dave Rose said the Cougars expected a grinder, and they got it after smoking SCU by a combined 56 points in two regular season games.

"First of all, I want to give credit to Santa Clara, Kerry [Keaton] and his team. I think that was a really entertaining game, a well-played game on their part, a hard-fought battle," Rose said. "I think that is the kind of game you expect you are going to have in March. We ended up making one more play today at the end, so I am just happy for our guys.

Kerry really had his guys ready for this tournament, so we are happy with the win, but we look forward to Monday (9:30 p.m. MST, ESPN2). The challenge that we have is right out in front of us. We played Portland on Thursday and it was a game that kinda went right down to the wire."

After Brownridge's steal and layup tied the game at 76-76, the Cougars called timeout with 20.2 seconds left and Rose drew up the game-winning play.

"It was just a side ball screen, and I could either turn it down or come to the middle," Haws said. "I decided to come to the middle and just found a seam and had some room for a little jumper."

Both Haws and Collinsworth said that Santa Clara having played Friday night worked to its advantage. The Broncos (14-18) appeared dog-tired during stretches of the second half, but simply would not go away.

"I think it was to their advantage that they already had a game under their belts," Haws said. "They knew what the arena was like, had already played. They just came out firing and playing with nothing to lose, really, playing really loose. So they are great players, and they got hot. We can't let guys do that to us."

Collinsworth agreed.

"Those first games are tough, because they had already played, and had momentum, and they kind of have a nothing-to-lose attitude through the whole tournament," he said.

Of course, Collinsworth played at the Orleans Arena for the first time since blowing out his knee here a year ago in the WCC championship game.

"I just tried to focus on all the hard work I have put in since my injury. It is crazy that it has been almost a year since that injury happened. But I don't think about it too much.

Honestly, when I showed up at the arena I had a little flashback of, right when I came in the door, of me sitting in a wheelchair. .. But when I played tonight, nothing really came in, like, oh, my knee. I just tried to focus on every game."

Well, it's well past midnight here in Las Vegas. Time to call it a night. More later.