This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A few hours ago, after No. 8 Gonzaga had jumped to a 31-15 lead over BYU on two Kyle Dranginis free throws with 9:06 remaining in the first half, there's no way I thought I'd be writing about a few plays, a few missed shots, that cost the Cougars a chance to upset the top-10 team.

But that's what happened, as BYU staged a furious rally to tie the game at halftime, and led by six in the second half before succumbing to GU's superior height and talent.

In front of a sellout crowd of 20,900 at the Marriott Center, BYU's second sellout of the month, Kyle Wiltjer and Kevin Pangos combined for 45 points and Zags took an 87-80 win.

The Cougars trailed by three with 1:41 left when Tyler Haws badly missed a three-pointer that would have tied it, then watched the Zags score the game's next five points to put it away.

Coincidentally, Haws had a decent look at a three late in the Utah game that also would have tied it, but came up short. Those are shots the senior usually makes, but they aren't falling this season with the regularity that they fell last season — before or after the sprained ankle he suffered against Weber State.

Haws looked better than he did five days ago against UMass, but is clearly not his self. The explosion isn't there, and he still labors a bit to move laterally.

"I think Ty's effort is tremendous," coach Dave Rose said. "He continues to battle and try to make it happen. But you can see times out there on the floor where he gets himself into situations that he is not really comfortable with, trying to explode off of that thing.

But he has told me since this happened, 'coach, I want to do as much as I can to help.' So we will stay in that mode until something changes."

Gonzaga isn't at full strength, either, but the Zags showed Saturday they have better depth, better balance, and more poise down the stretch, than the Cougars. Their stars — Pangos and Wiltjer — simply outshined BYU's — Haws and Kyle Collinsworth, who had a triple-double thanks to a very late assist (to Anson Winder) but was just 1 of 4 in the second half.

Haws, Collinsworth and Chase Fischer were a combined 3 of 16 in the second half. That won't beat the No. 8 team in the country, obviously.

"I made a couple dumb plays down the stretch," Collinsworth acknowledged, lamenting a couple possessions where BYU didn't even get off a shot in the final few minutes.

"That's the biggest thing," he said.

Here are more comments from the WCC opener:

Rose's opening statement:

" I think both teams played extremely hard and first league game, and I think you could feel it. You could tell. It had some real emotion and urgency and intensity to it, and we didn't get off to the best start, but our guys found a way to correct that and get things tied before the half.

We came out in the second half and had a nice little run, and we got a little bit impatient. We got impatient defensively and a little impatient offensively and they were good. Their execution was good. They hit some big shots against our zone.

Wiltjer was a guy we had a hard time finding in that zone. He hurt us from the high post, from the mid-post, from the short corner, from the three-point line. I mean, they are a good team.

Now we look forward to getting our guys ready for the Portland game on Monday."

Rose on how they were impatient:

"We got back into the game on some quick shots, some quick threes. We made a run at the start of the second half where we were driving that thing. I think we got ourselves in some positions in transition where we could have taken more advantage of driving that thing and getting to the rim.

It got really physical to where guys weren't getting calls to the rim, and I think that led a little bit to it, where guys were settling for quicker shots when they were open."

Defensively, they were doing a really good job of controlling the tempo of the game and looking for what they were trying to get, and we jumped out of position quite a few times, trying to make plays and that kind of hurt us.

Then we had a couple of possessions where they were better than we were, rebounding the ball. And that is tough because we played small most of the night, because we didn't get off to the best start with our big guys. So we will try to figure out a way to make that happen."

Rose on Anson Winder's game:

"He's playing wonderful. Tonight, he got himself into a really tough number where he is playing the four a lot, guarding a much bigger guy. In transition it kind of helps him, because it is a difficult matchup for them. His ability to drive the ball, get to the rim and score.

He didn't hit a three tonight, which is a little bit odd for him. He's been really good from the three-point line. But he got to the free-throw line and scored. I have said this before: the spark that he gives us at that position, playing a little differently with the four guards, has been really good.

It is going to be hard for that to be consistent part of how we play. It needs to be a portion of the games.

We need to get our big guys back. Hopefully Nate will get back in the next couple of weeks and we can make some progress with the newer guys."

Rose on Collinsworth's triple double:

"I mean, that eight or nine minute stretch in the first half, he was dominating every facet of the game. He was dominating the boards, and defensively the back line of that zone. And then he was distributing the ball well, and made a couple of plays for himself to score.

That was good to see. Hopefully we can find ways to be more consistent and get more of that."

Rose on how good Gonzaga is:

"Well, the balance of this team is really good. He's got guys in every spot that can make tough plays in tough times. Pangos was the guy tonight who really kind of, when they were stuck, made a couple threes and got them going and got to the free-throw line. But everybody fed off him. It is a pretty balanced team.

Hopefully the next time we play them we are a better team and can make a better game out of it."

Collinsworth on what it would have taken to beat Gonzaga:

"I think just a better job on Pangos, not letting him get off a bunch of shots. He's a great player and when he gets in rhythm like that and hits a few threes, he's tough.

He became really aggressive, and we didn't make the adjustments we needed to to stop him. That's why he got going."

Collinsworth on how hard it was to stop Wiltjer:

"He is a great shooter. It is hard because they get it in the high post, and you have to stop Pangos, and other shooters got free. He's a great player. He spread the floor really well, and he's also got some post-up game. He's hard to guard. Credit to them and him for hitting the shots. When it comes down to it, they hit the shots they needed to have."

Winder on whether this is one of better Zags' teams:

"Yeah, definitely. Their big guys are a load down there, and their guards are good shooters and good playmakers. It is definitely one of their better teams. They are always great every year, but this is one of their better teams, and we will have to be much better next time we play them, for sure."

Winder on the bad start:

"We were trying to feel out the game too much, instead of doing what we do, and attacking from the beginning. And that's all just within our team. That's something we have to control and do a better job at next time. We have to play better from the opening tip and not wait for a few minutes to go by and then play our game."

Winder on the positives from the game:

"Definitely our toughness and our willingness to win down the stretch. We have played games like this before where we were up at one point where we let it slip away. I think we are getting better. We have had games against Stanford and UMass where we have come out on top, and we are getting better.

This was a great team, a top-10 team in the country, so you know you have your hands full coming into it. We are growing and this is something we can use to get better.

We can go back and watch film and hopefully use this to our advantage and hopefully win the rest of our games in the conference."