Perhaps Jackson Emery said it best after the Cougars dropped Air Force 76-66 in front of 22,700 at the Marriott Center on Saturday afternoon.
"I think we did enough to just win. I felt that's kind of how we played. We just did enough to win. We played in too many spurts where we played well, and then we didn't play so well. But you know what? It is just one of those games where you win, you move on, you learn from it. We know that we can't do that every game. Otherwise, we are going to be in trouble."
The Cougars led by as many as 18 points in the second half, but found themselves languishing a bit in the final five minutes when AFA cut the deficit to eight points a couple of times.
Some key plays by Noah Hartsock and Kyle Collinsworth in the final two minutes sealed the win.
A letdown?
"Yes and no," Emery said. "UNLV there was a lot of hype, a lot of energy. Air Force, I feel like sometimes you can fall into a sleep, where you are not too excited, or too pumped up for them. And they do that as well, when you play. It is hard to get an energy going, and I felt like some times we had energy, and some times we didn't."
Emery got just one steal, in the first half, so he's now tied with Danny Ainge for the all-time steals record with 195. He joked afterwards that he will have to get it at Utah, and that he might even get some applause.
Jimmer Fredette led BYU with 22 points, but was just 6 for 14 from the field and had four turnovers.
Brandon Davies added 10 points and six rebounds, but picked up two early fouls in the first half, and his third foul early in the second half, and played just 19 minutes.
Hartsock had 12, while Charles Abouo and Emery had eight apiece.
"Just one of those nights. You like to go 6 for 9 every night from the three-point line, but you know percentages. It was just one of those nights. I had good looks. Jimmer and the rest of the guys found me. I have confidence that I will hit them in the upcoming games," Emery said.
Overall, the Cougars shot just 42 percent from the field, but helped themselves with a 19 for 22 performance from the free-throw line.
Air Force shot 45.8 percent, but was outrebounded 38-25 and allowed the Cougars 18 second-chance points.
"Going into the game, we wanted to keep it close and be in it down the stretch and I thought we did that," said Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds. "We had it within 10 with six or seven minutes left and just couldn't close the gap. It just gets demoralizing when you get a defensive stop and then they get an offensive board and that happened several times."