There were several keys to winning this game.

1. Halford – the guy came off the bench and scored 19 points. He was money out there and he is the player of the game.
2. Collinsworth – a steady floor game, scored when needed, knocked down free throws and dished up 11 assists.
3. Haws – not a spectacular game and almost disappeared in the middle of the game. Started hot and finished strong. A very quiet 21.
4. Defense – this has been this team’s Achilles heel all season and they played poor defense in the first half. I have to believe (at least hope) that Rose lit into them at half time about the defense. The finished with 17 steals with Winder and Bartley accounting for 9 of them.
5. 14 points out of our centers. Kaufusi had 6 and Andrus had 8.
6. Steals-assists-turnovers. BYU had 17 steals, 17 assists and 9 turnovers. Portland had 12-7-19. That creates a big advantage for BYU.
7. Free Throws – BYU missed some FTs including the front end of a 1-1 for Haws but Portland gave the game away as the line in the second half.

The officiating was inconsistent. They began by letting them play and then started calling it tight. That makes it difficult for the players to adjust. I know everyone on the board was complaining about the calls on our big men underneath but most of them were for putting both hands on the offensive player. That is an automatic call now. You cannot put the forearm bar or two hands on a player.

You have to give credit to Van Der Mars. He had 13 rebounds. He just knows how to get in position. Pressely torched us in the first half for 16 points and got zip in the second half.

Lets give some credit to Dave Rose for making some adjustments at halftime and getting this team fired up.