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Provo • Coach Dave Rose had good news and bad news for BYU basketball fans after the Cougars wrapped up basketball practice on Thursday.

The good news is that senior guard Anson Winder, who missed last weekend's Bay Area split with a sprained knee, has been practicing this week and should play on Saturday against San Diego (2 p.m., TWC/ROOT).

The bad news is that senior forward Nate Austin re-injured the hamstring he tore while stretching before the Utah game on Dec. 10 and will not make the trip to Southern California this weekend.

"Nate practiced yesterday and I thought he had a really good practice," Rose said. "The last minute or two of our last drill, he tweaked that thing again. … That is really unfortunate."

Rose said doctors will examine Austin's hamstring on Monday and determine then whether he can return for any of the nine regular-season games remaining.

As for Winder, Thursday "was probably the toughest day for him, just recovering from a couple hard practices," Rose said. "So I anticipate that he will feel good. He looked good, especially the last two days, and hopefully we will have him for the game on Saturday."

Winder, BYU's second-leading scorer with a 14.7 average, said his knee started feeling better on Sunday when the Cougars (15-6, 5-3 WCC) returned home after the 82-77 loss at Saint Mary's.

"It has been responding well," he said. "Hopefully it just keeps getting better."

Point guard Kyle Collinsworth suffered a quad contusion against the Gaels late in the game, but has been practicing and will play against the Toreros (9-11, 2-6).

"He's sore, but he is working through it pretty good," Rose said.

Winder, Worthington set to start

Rose said Winder will regain his starting spot and Skyler Halford, who played well in the road swing, scoring 27 points, willl come off the bench again.

Sophomore forward Luke Worthington, who has scored one point and grabbed four rebounds in his past five starts, will again get the nod on Saturday.

Rose said Worthington starts instead of fellow healthy big men Isaac Neilson and Corbin Kaufusi because he understands the defensive game plan better.

"He is the [big] guy who can execute all of the game plan the best," Rose said. "I think Corbin and Isaac are guys who are good at some things, but you can't really determine what they are going to start the first four or five minutes of the game with, so Luke is the guy who has better comprehension of the plan."

Briefly

Former Lone Peak star Nick Emery has returned from his church mission to Germany and has been attending a few practices to watch and conditioning. Having returned from a mission in 2013, Collinsworth told the sharpshooting guard to take it slow, stretch a lot and listen to what his body tells him he can do. .. The Cougars lead the country in scoring at 86.5 points per game. Rose on the uptempo philosophy he has held since he was a high school coach: "Our philosophy was to shoot it before we lost it."

Twitter: @drewjay —

BYU at San Diego

at Jenny Craig pavillion, San Diego, California

P Saturday, 2 p.m.

TV • TWC/ROOT