BYU coach Dave Rose figured the Cougars needed to play reasonably well offensively on Saturday night against high-scoring, 3-point loving Santa Clara, and they did.
BYU shot 56.9 percent from the field (60.0 percent in the second half) and rolled up 95 points in a 95-78 win over the Broncos in front of 16,116 at the Marriott Center tonight.
Rose knew the Broncos would make baskets, and the visitors did in the first half, going 6 of 11 from 3-point range and shooting 50 percent overall. But the Cougars clamped down better defensively in the second half, forcing Santa Clara to shoot 41.4 percent after the break, and won their fourth straight game.
" I thought that it was a really well-played game. I thought that both teams played well. I thought that offensively both teams were hard to stop," Rose said in his opening statement. "I think that Santa Clara has got a great guardline and those three guys, when they are shooting the ball well, it caused us a lot of problems.
It free'd up the pressure we were trying to extend and put on the perimeter free'd up a lot of things for their inside game.
I am really proud of our guys for being able to keep up with them, because that's what we had to do tonight. We had a hard time stopping them, and we had to score to win this game.
Going in, I didn't think we would need 95 [points] to win, but I thought that we would have to score because I thought this was a really good offensive team. So I am proud of our guys and I look forward to the game on Monday."

Rose tightened his rotation considerably in the game, with the starters registering most of the minutes. Brandon Davies, Noah Hartsock and Matt Carlino combined to score 65 points. It was the first time since March of 2010 against TCU that three Cougars scored 20 points or more in one game.
I was puzzled as to why freshman Damarcus Harrison did not get into the game until two minutes, 22 seconds remained. Is he in the doghouse?
Here's what Rose said in the postgame interview room:
"I think that this defensive assignment was one of the most complicated we've had as far as what we were trying to do defensively. I think we were more comfortable as a staff with the guys who have a little bit more experience," he said.

The Cougars were in a hurry after the game, because they were headed to the airport to catch a charter flight to San Diego. They play the Toreros in San Diego on Monday. Rose said they left tonight so they can avoid traveling on Sunday, and so they can go to church in San Diego and participate in a fireside there.
As he was leaving the interview room, Rose half-sung, half-said that line in the primary song about "Saturday is a special day, it helps us get ready for Sunday."
Kinda funny.

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A few more notes and quotes from the game:

* Brandon Davies scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the first half, the most points he's ever scored in a first half.
* Noah Hartsock scored 21 points but didn't make up any ground in the race for league scoring honors because the leader, Santa Clara's Kevin Foster, had 22. Hartsock has scored in double figures in every game this year.
* The Cougars had 21 assists, two better than their per-game average of 19. They lead the country in assists.
* The Cougars shot a season-high 56.9 percent from the field.
* BYU won the rebounding battle, 40-26, and generally dominated inside against the smaller, guard-oriented Broncos.
"I think that our guys, we have a lot of confidence in our post guys to score the ball," Rose said. "And I thought that they were really physical. I thought they did a good job of trying to get us out of comfortable spots, but we were still able to convert and score in the post.
I thought Brandon was really good in the first half, Noah was really good in the second half, and that's a good combination to have.
Matt and Charles both scored for us on the perimeter, but I thought Charles and Craig and Brock did a good job of trying to limit those shooters.
You could see that Cowels and Foster both have unlimited range, and every time they shoot that thing they believe it is going in.
We were able to at least hold them to a workable number. But we had to score. If we didn't score, we would have been in trouble."