Rare rookie rapture in aftermath of win

Freshmen Michael Loyd and Chris Collinsworth spend a few minutes with another rookie, Jimmer Fredette, milling around on the floor and under the basket in the Jon Huntsman Center Saturday night.

They were just soaking up the moment. Perhaps they are too young to realize they’d been part of a very rare BYU basketball moment, winning at that place. Even after Saturday’s 55-52 win made it two-in a row, they might now know the significance of doing it back to back. But they’d like to get used to it.

“It was crazy, it was a lot more intense than I thought it would be, but it was also a lot more fun than I expected it to be,” said Collinsworth. Lloyd agreed. He will likely be BYU’s starting point guard on the return trip at Utah next winter.

Concluded Collinsworth, “It feels really good. We needed to get a win on the road, regardless of who it was against. The UNLV loss was painful and we needed to get a win as fast as we could.”

Collinsworth believes the Cougars got a lot of second shots, came up with big rebounds and that left to big baskets against Utah.

For Loyd’s brief work, he may not have scored, missed his only shot in 7 minutes of playing time, but he got a rebound, made an assist and blocked a shot. Not too shabby.

Fredette, who expects to be present next year, mad 3 of 6 shots including 1 of 4 from beyond the arc. He made the only free throw he was given, had 4 rebounds and 8 points in 14 minutes.

Collinsworth played 16 minutes and made 3 of 5 shots. But he had 8 rebounds, one away from the leaders in the game. While Collinsworth will be on a mission to Australia when the Cougars return to the Huntsman, he enjoyed his first taste of the rivalry game and winning on Utah’s home court made it even more enjoyable.

Said Loyd, “It was a lot like I expected it would be. But you have to really experience it to understand it,” said Lloyd. “The whole game, every moment was a competition, a real fight. That’s what I will remember about it. You have to come ready to play every night. I like big games, I like games like this one.”

The Cougars defeated Utah shooting just 33 percent from the field and just 17 percent from the 3-point line.

Sam Burgess said that showed something.

The shooting slump by the team? Burgess said beating Utah might be a springboard to getting out of the hole. “This is a long season and you are going to have some bad nights, some of them in a row, so we are not worried. There is a lot of games to be played, it’s a long season.”

What the win proved, however, is BYU can struggle offensively and still notch a win over a quality opponent on the road. They could not say that before Saturday in the Huntsman Center.

“It showed we can have a mediocre shooting night, play defense and still win. It’s not going to last with all the shooters we have. We played defense, that was the name of the game and that is why we won,” said Burgess.