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Portland, Ore. • BYU basketball fans most likely won't refer to Saturday's surprising 84-81 loss at Portland as the D'Marques Tyson game, but they could without too much of a stretch.
Two years ago, in what is often referred to in Provo as the "Bobby Sharp game," that unsung guard came off the bench to hit eight 3-pointers to carry the Pilots to a 114-110 triple-overtime win despite a Chiles Center-record 48 points by BYU's Tyler Haws.
Saturday, Tyson came off the bench to go 5 for 10 from 3-point range and score 21 points in the victory. He delivered the knockout blow with just over a minute remaining, a 3-pointer that pushed Portland's lead to 80-74.
"One of them, Nate [Austin] actually tipped it, got his hand up on it, and it still went in," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "He was having a heck of a night."
So were Bryce Pressley and Alex Wintering, but the Cougars expected that out of Wintering, a junior, and Pressley, a senior. Tyson, a sophomore from Bothell, Wash., was averaging only 8.1 points per game.
"I am not surprised that he was able to do that, but it is disappointing that he did do that," Chase Fischer said. "Because, that's what we had on our scouting report. He's a shooter and a lot of his shots are threes. He can shoot. Give him credit. He played well."
The killer was a two-minute stretch after the eight-minute mark when the Pilots made three consecutive 3-pointers.
"Every game creates its own challenges," Rose said. "We knew tonight it is a team that scores really well. We've got kinda the same issues that San Francisco created for us where they have a little point guard [Wintering] that is really quick and can really score, then good 3-point shooters who they spread the ball around to."
The Cougars played much better defensively in Thursday's 73-70 win over Gonzaga, which doesn't have the guards this year to create problems from the 3-point line. Portland does.
And the Cougars shot poorly for the second-straight game, 38 percent.
Thursday's hero, Kyle Collinsworth, was just 4 of 17 from the field; He did grab 10 rebounds, but committed five of BYU's 14 turnovers. The Cougars were just 6 of 22 from 3-point range, with Fischer and Nick Emery combining to go 5 of 14 beyond the arc.
"Every game is different," Fischer said. "We have to learn to win when things are good, and we are feeling good and coming off a big win. … We gotta have some more guys step up. We got to come together as a team more, guard better, score better. We just weren't good tonight. We have to start winning our games after we win a big game."
Twitter: @drewjay