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Two of the BYU basketball team's primary goals in the offseason was to get better at shooting three-pointers, and get better defending them.

So far, the Cougars are 1-for-2.

Coach Dave Rose's team held off Long Beach State 95-90 here at the Marriott Center tonight in a good old fashioned shootout in front of 16,778 fans, a good number considering the 5 p.m. tipoff on a weeknight.

BYU went 11 of 24 from three-point range.

LBSU, playing without suspended all-league guard Tyler Lamb, went 13 of 22. Mike Caffey led LBSU with a game-high 26 points, while Tyler Haws had 21 for the Cougars.

Rose's opening comments on the game in his presser:

"It was a good win, a really good win. We expected a team that would come in here and really push the ball, but I don't know that we expected them to be as consistent at it as they were. They were really good the whole game. We did a better job in the sec on dhalff getting back and making it more difficult in the half court, but that's a good team with that little guard and those shooters they have, Dan has a good team and is going to have a really good year.

So, happy for the win and really proud of how our guys competed.

I think that's the best thing that we did tonight, is we stayed together and competed and made enough plays to win.

We played a mostly smaller lineup in the second half because we were having such a terrible time guarding their ball screens with some of our inexperienced big guys. So our guys really responded. Skyler and Anson were terrific for us.

Then Tyler and Chase, and Isaac came in and gave us some good minutes. I think that we can really build on this."

LBSU insisted on the early tip because it plays against Saturday in Southern California against San Francisco State in what it calls its homecoming game (no football at the school), and the 49ers proved to be a very worthy opening opponent. BYU led for more than 30 minutes of the 40-minute game, but never by more than 10.

"I feel like this type of adversity to start our season is the way to go," said coach Dan Monson. "As opposed to practicing at home. I thought this environment would get us ready and get the jitters out. I might be tired, but they shouldn't be. They're young."

The atmosphere picked up as the crowd grew and realized the 49ers weren't going away.

"It was a great atmosphere, and at the end there it was awesome," said BYU's Skyler Halford, who would be my player of the game candidate. "The crowd was just rocking."

Halford had 18 points and seven assists in 24 minutes as Rose went with his veterans down the stretch after playing everybody but Ryan Andrus in the first half. Point guard Jordan Ellis sat out with a knee issue.

"I thought Skyler was terrific," Rose said. "He played with confidence and he was aggressive and he was on attack. I thought defensively he had a lot of energy, and then he made some clutch shots for us."

Anson Winder added 12 off the bench as Rose started Haws, Kyle Collinsworth, Nate Austin, Luke Worthington and Chase Fischer. Collinsworth played just 13 minutes, by design.

"Yeah, I think that we are still trying to make sure that his minutes are monitored, Rose said. "When he gets free to go, we will change that. … I think it is a feel for him, when he is confident that that is what he wants to do. I think the doctors are fine [with however many minutes he plays]. It is just the amount of minutes. He didn't want to jump in and play 35 to 40 minutes the first game. …. I do think by the time we get to Maui, he will be clean and we can go as deep as we want with him."

More comments from Rose after the game:

On Skyler and Anson playing point guard for long stretches:

"They are guys who can play different positions for us. Both of those guys played a lot of point guard in the summer, just preparing for what would happen with Kyle's situation, and it paid off tonight.

Defensively, Anson was good late in the game with the point.

It is nice to have guys who have been really good in games at this level to call on when you get in kind of a tough jam.

We knew when we scheduled this game that it was going to be a really good game. I mean, these guys are really talented, and they are used to going in to all kinds of places and playing well. You look at their schedule the past few years. This little point guard Caffey, he has been in about every arena in the country."

On what worked defensively and what they have to work on:

"Well, that's a tough cover. I thought we could zone a little bit. What I was really happy with was we could stay in man and actually make enough plays to win. We played a few possessions of zone tonight, but I think we did a better job of conversion in the second half. We rebounded the ball better in the second half. We gave a lot of help to try to handle penetrating guards, and they burned us pretty good with three-pointers. I think they were 7 for 12 from 3 point line at halftime. We had to switch some of our covers in the second half."

On Isaac Neilson's performance (10 points in 11 minutes):

'I thought Isaac was good. The game was really fast at first for him, and he was a step behind. But I thought he adjusted well and he gave us a big lift from the free throw line. He was 6 of 7 from the line. But for your first night out, the way that we guard ball screens, and what he sees every day in practice, you don't see the quickness and agility that these guys have.

I was pleased with him; I think he's going to be a good player for us."

On whether he knew Lamb wouldn't play:

"Didn't know until 3 O'Clock today."

On what type of game he prefers, a patsy win or a tough, hard-fought win:

"I think there are pluses for everything. This was a game where we could get a lot better, and maybe get a little bit deeper in our roster, but the most important thing early is to find ways to win games, and hopefully this turns out to be a good win for us.

I think LBSU has a really good chance to knock off some people in their preseason schedule, and then win their league."

On Bountiful product McKay LaSalle:

"We knew that he was a shooter. He is a guy who, if you let him get loose, can knock down those shots, and that's what we let him do in the first half. We over helped and … I think he was 4 for 7 in first half. Got one late, but we did a better job in the second half."