Having dispatched 3-point loving USF, BYU looks for road sweep against drive-oriented Pacific

Stockton, Calif. • Junior college transfer Jahshire Hardnett is a man of few words.

But BYU’s 6-foot point guard came up big in Thursday’s 69-59 win over San Francisco, scoring 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting from the free-throw line. The Gulfport, Miss., product by way of Florida’s Chipola College, also had two assists, two rebounds and two steals and did not commit a turnover in a season-high 34 minutes.

With a huge assist from Weber State transfer McKay Cannon, Hardnett is basically BYU’s replacement for Nick Emery, who withdrew from school a day before the opener. Hardnett doesn’t have Emery’s shooting ability, but he is more of a calming presence and has a greater ability to stay in front of opposing point guards.

Those defensive skills will be needed again Saturday when the Cougars travel to Pacific to take on Damon Stoudamire’s Tigers at 8 p.m. MST at Spanos Center in Stockton, about a 100-minute drive inland from San Francisco.

“This is going to be a completely different game prep [than San Francisco],” BYU coach Dave Rose said. “This team here shot 42 3s the last game and 25 3s tonight. Pacific might not shoot 10 3s all game.”

Pacific was 4 of 15 from 3-point range in Thursday’s 74-56 loss at Saint Mary’s, a loss that dropped it to 1-2 in West Coast Conference play and 6-10 overall. The Cougars improved to 2-1 in league, 13-3 overall, and have won seven straight true road games dating back to last season.

“They are a driving, athletic, get-it-to-the-rim team,” Rose said about the Tigers, who lost to BYU 91-62 in Provo and 62-47 in Stockton 14 days apart last season. “A big part of this game on Saturday will be our ability to guard them. We are going to have to guard them without fouling them, especially in the first half.”

Fouls plagued the Cougars against the Dons in the first half as leading scorer and rebounder Yoeli Childs (17.8 points and 8.8 rebounds) picked up two in the first eight minutes. Recognizing that fellow guard TJ Haws was struggling offensively, Hardnett took it upon himself to be the third scorer the Cougars needed to weather the storm.

“With the coaching staff, we talked, and it was definitely something I needed to improve on, to score the ball more than I’ve been scoring,” Hardnett said.

Childs has managed to avoid foul trouble most of the season knowing his team lacked depth behind him, but he got one in the first 15 seconds Thursday for apparently swinging an elbow.

“The one thing about playing on the road is it seems like the first half on the road is a real challenge with fouls,” Rose said. “But I kinda like the rotation we’ve got here. We need to get Rylan [Bergersen] more minutes. He is playing really well in practice. Maybe we can get this to a steady nine-man rotation, and that will really help us on the road.”

The Cougars are crossing their fingers that second-leading scorer Elijah Bryant (16.8 ppg) is good to go after taking a hard fall on his hip early in the second half Thursday.

“It is fine,” Bryant said after scoring nine of his game-high 17 points after the fall. “I am fine.”

Rose said Bryant was in a lot of pain, but the coach took a timeout so the junior guard could recover and shoot the free throws after the Cougars had misfired on their first three possessions of the second half.

“We were having a heck of a time scoring at that time in the game, but he fought through it,” Rose said. “He was in pain. He must have hit that hip bone hard on the floor. … We will see how he is tomorrow.”