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What now?

That was the prevailing sentiment Saturday night outside the BYU locker room after the Cougars knocked off Weber State 76-70 in front of 10,122 fans at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

Of course, senior guard Tyler Haws went down with an ankle injury with 3:29 remaining in the game and the Cougars leading 70-52. Haws scored 19 points and had seven rebounds and five assists, with four turnovers (he uncharacteristically dropped a couple passes) before he was helped off the court by Anson Winder and BYU trainer Rob Ramos.

Coach Dave Rose said more will be known after Haws undergoes X-rays and perhaps an MRI, but it appears that he sprained his ankle. Rose said it was "swollen up pretty good" and that Haws was in a lot of pain.

"I mean, the first thing you think about is all the bad stuff, knees and that," Rose said when I asked him what went through his mind when Haws crumpled under the Weber State basket. "Then you go out there and you see it is an ankle, and you've got some ankle issues already. Hopefully, for Ty's sake, especially, because he has worked so hard for this year, we can get him back as soon as possible."

The 2014 calendar year has been an awful one for high-profile BYU athletes and injuries, so here's hoping Haws can recover quickly. Kyle Collinsworth suffered a major knee injury last March, then quarterback Taysom Hill — another TH, mind you — broke his leg in October. Running back Jamaal Williams suffered a knee injury in November, and senior forward Nate Austin went down Wednesday with a torn hamstring. Rose said before the game that Austin will probably be out 3-4 weeks at least, and not just two.

And now Haws is hurting.

Rose said the Cougars will try to recover quickly. Nothing else they can do.

"We kind of have a system that we run," he said, when asked how BYU will play without Haws if it has to. "We will have to plug another guy in there somewhere, but we will get Anson [Winder] or Chase [Fishcer] in that spot, and kind of adjust some other things. Ty is a big piece, obviously.

It is a big game with Stanford coming in in a week. At least we will have a little bit of time to figure out what we are going to do, and how we are going to do it."

The Cougars host the Cardinal on Saturday, then turn around and host UMass on Dec. 23, the day after the Miami Beach Bowl.

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The Haws injury sort of put a damper on a big shooting night for the Cougars, who were 12 of 19 from three-point range in burying the Wildcats. I was impressed by the way Weber State refused to crumble, though, and cut a big BYU lead to eight, 51-43, with 11 minutes remaining.

However, Collinsworth swooped in for a big dunk to restore BYU's double-digit lead, and Haws' three-point play with 7:24 left, followed by Chase Fischer's fourth three-pointer, ended the home team's hopes.

"Well, our guys were really good yesterday in practice. When you have a disappointing result, you find out where your guys are and what they are doing," Rose said "I didn't expect us to hit 8 of our first 10 shots. But I thought we would come out with a lot of energy, a lot of focus, because our guys were really on it yesterday. I think the most important part of this game tonight, besides the win, is the fact that so many guys played well, so many guys contributed. We really need that kind of boost going into these next two games."

The Cougars were outscored 30-14 in the paint, including 14-0 in the first half inside. However, the big guys contributed much better than they did Wednesday against Utah. Isaac Neilson started in the place of Nate Austin and had the best game of his career, 15 points and six rebounds.

Corbin Kaufusi came in and sparked the Cougars offensively midway through the second half and finished with six points and four rebounds in 14 minutes.

"Well, they are good players. They need to feel comfortable on the floor. The only way it is going to happen is for them to be out there. And injury to Nate is probably going to help all those guys, because they are going to be out there when we need size," Rose said. "Those guys were active. Corbin made some really good moves late, got a couple aggressive rebounds.

"Isaac was really comfortable, and a couple of sets we had him pick and pop, and the way they were playing him, coming off that screen, they were taking everybody coming off, and kind of left him alone.

That will be different now, because people have seen it, that he can shoot it."