The West Coast Conference has suspended BYU point guard Nick Emery for one game for punching Utah point guard Brandon Taylor during Wednesday’s game at the Huntsman Center. Despite 7-footer Jakob Poeltl’s dominance, Utah only outscored BYU 36-34 in the paint. Taylor would only say that Emery said something “very foul” to him after the punch, but didn’t give more detail about what words were exchanged.
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BYU had plenty to be frustrated about after a loss in which a furious second-half comeback fell short.
“They flat out out-played us in the first half”, senior guard Kyle Collinsworth said.
Ogbe scored a season-high 13 and Jordan Loveridge finished with 12 points and five rebounds.
“This team, we’ve gotta put together two good halves for us to be good this year”, said star guard Kyle Collinsworth, who had 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
The victory should be a good non-conference win for Utah against a BYU team that could be in the hunt for a NCAA tournament berth.
“We knew that rebounding would be a huge key in the game, and they out-rebounded us, and they ended up outscoring us nearly the same way”, BYU coach Dave Rose said.
The “third” game was the late in the second half, as Utah started to get rolling again and started to put some distance between them and the Cougars once and for all.
Emery wound up and punched Taylor in the chest underneath the basket. “Insane things happen in this game, and I just hope that’s something we would never do”.
BYU: Nick Emery, a freshman coming off his Mormon mission, has scored double figures in 5 of 6 games. Taylor after the game that Emery’s play “was a dirty play. and it was uncalled for”. He didn’t exactly try to hide the move, either, as he stared down a crumpled Taylor before jogging back up the floor.
“When I talked to the official, he told me it was pretty obvious”, Rose said. Coach K followed that up by saying it “got his undies in a little bit of a bunch”.
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“They did a good job in the first half chasing me everywhere”, Fischer said.
