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Stockton, Calif. • Junior post player Kyle Davis said it best on Thursday night after BYU fell 85-74 to sharpshooting Saint Mary's at McKeon Pavilion in the Cougars' West Coast Conference opener.
"The great thing about basketball is you only have to wait a day or two to try to avenge losses, make up for a loss," Davis said after getting his first taste of SMC's cozy gymnasium and precise, efficient play. "This is going to sting, just like our other losses. But we are resilient, and we will come back and we will play well on Saturday, and hopefully be able to get our first true road win."
Now 0-4 in road games this season, the Cougars will face Pacific on 4 p.m. MST Saturday at Spanos Center. The Tigers (2-1, 3-9) defeated San Diego 77-75 on Thursday.
In December, Pacific imposed sanctions on itself, including a ban from postseason competition this year, after cooperating with an NCAA investigation over allegations of academic misconduct within the athletic department. Former San Diego assistant Mike Burns is serving as Pacific's interim head coach after head coach Ron Verlin and assistant coach Dwight Young were suspended Dec. 11 in connection with the investigation.
The Tigers are 2-0 in WCC home games, having surprised Santa Clara 73-72 in overtime last week. Saturday, 7-footer Sami Eleraky, a junior center, will return to the lineup after missing the first 12 games during the NCAA's investigation.
The Cougars' focus will be on themselves, however, coach Dave Rose said after his team was schooled in execution by the 12-1 Gaels. BYU "just needs to play better" on the road and discontinue a maddening trend of falling behind by double digits in first halves, Rose said. They've done that in all five of their losses.
"We didn't do a good job tonight of getting on to the next play," Rose said. "I thought in the first half we were so worried about what just happened that we weren't as good, or as positive, for the next play. It is about having confidence in yourself, and having confidence in your teammates and learning to rely on those things during tough times.
"We know we can do a better job with that," Rose continued. "We want these guys to play with all the confidence in the world, but there are times when we need to rely on our teammates to help us make plays, too."
On the positive side, the Cougars looked sharp at the start of both halves. They took a quick 7-2 lead in the game, and went on a 10-0 run the first three minutes of the second half to take a brief 37-36 lead. But instead of giving BYU a nice lead, the run made up for what was once a 12-point deficit in the first half.
"It has kind of become a theme for us," Rose acknowledged. "We keep getting behind, and then we come back and take a lead. But that's a tough thing to do. Trying to sustain [consistent play] will be our challenge."
The Cougars have bounced back nicely after each loss this season, but this will be the first time they've played consecutive road games.
"Yeah, there have been [road trips in past years] where we lose the first one and that caused us to lose the second one because we were so caught up in that first one, and got down," said senior Nate Austin. "They key is to leave this game behind. It is over. We can't change the outcome. So we have to get ready for Pacific, which plays hard. … They are a physical team. They always attack well. Me and [Kyle Collinsworth] and Chase [Fischer], we gotta tell the guys this game is over. We will play just as hard against Pacific. But we have to play a little bit better to get a win against them."
Twitter: @drewjay