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Provo • In a rout of the school five miles away, BYU got quite a bit of help from a player who spent the 2013-2014 season balling 127 miles to the north.
Utah State transfer Kyle Davis helped the Cougars to a 85-54 pummeling of Utah Valley on Friday night, answering some questions on where extra effort would come from in the post-Tyler Haws era — at least for one night.
Davis had a double-double with four minutes remaining in the first half, torching the Wolverines for 11 points and 11 rebounds.
He finished the game with 17 points and 20 rebounds, a BYU school record in a season opener, besting Kresimir Cosic's record of 18 set in 1971.
"Rebounding is just something that feels like the best part of my game, so I try to go for every rebound and see what happens," Davis said. "I had a feeling I was getting a lot."
The Cougars as a whole dominated the glass, nabbing 69 rebounds, a BYU record for the team at the Marriott Center.
BYU coach Dave Rose said the rebounding discrepancy was a product of the Wolverines getting back to stop BYU's transition offense, calling Davis' effort "terrific" and "contagious" for the rest of the team.
"Hopefully we can count on eight, 10, 12, 14 rebounds a game from him," Rose said.
UVU started out overwhelmed and underperforming, struggling against BYU's speed and size to start the first half only 10 of 35 from the field. The Wolverines finished shooting only 27 percent, junior forward and Utah State transfer Konner Frey leading the team with 19 points.
The Cougars haven't yet completely compensated for Haws' shooting touch, however, hitting on only seven of 25 attempts from behind the arc.
Color senior guard Chase Fischer unconcerned.
"I mean obviously Ty is the leading scorer in BYU history, but you guys saw it tonight, I don't think there was really any adjusting," Fischer said. "It was pretty flowing."
Not to be outdone by Davis' performance, Kyle Collinsworth neared a triple-double with a 17-point, nine-rebound and seven-assist night.
Rose said he was encouraged by Collinsworth scoring in myriad ways and called the senior guard's aggressiveness infectious.
"I liked the way that his energy just spread throughout the team," the coach said. "That's what a good leader can do for you."
Freshman Nick Emery also got in on the action, accruing his first double-digit scoring game for the Cougars with 10 points.
Davis said there's no secret to carrying his momentum into the next game, just a little bit of effort and some good luck from basketballs careening in his direction.
"That's something I can control, I can't really control if shots go in or anything else, but I can control my effort in going to get rebounds," he said.
Twitter: @BrennanJSmith —
Storylines
R Utah State transfer Kyle Davis grabbed 20 rebounds, scored 17 points in his regular-season debut for BYU.
• The Cougars held Utah Valley to 27 percent shooting from the field and 54 points.
• BYU outrebounded UVU 69-36 as a team, the highest total ever for the Cougars at the Marriott Center.