This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
As Chase Fischer went Wednesday night at the Huntsman Center, so did the BYU Cougars.
And that wasn't a good thing for a team hoping to end a short losing streak to rival Utah.
Scoreless in the first half, Fischer erupted for 26 second-half points, but it wasn't enough as BYU fell 83-75 to the Utes in front of 15,131 fans.
"We didn't execute our game plan [in the first half]," Fisher said, noting that Utah starting Kenneth Ogbe was a smart move — "credit to them, they did a good job of taking us out of what we wanted to do."
Trailing 51-28 at halftime, the Cougars (4-2) emerged a different team in the second half, but got no closer than seven in dropping their third-straight game to the Utes (6-1).
Fischer was 0-for-2 in the first half and 8-for-13 in the second half.
"We made a couple of adjustments at halftime, but mainly it was just challenging our guys to be more competitive, to be more active. Be the assertive team," coach Dave Rose said. "I thought we played better in the second half, but we were in a big hole to try to overcome. We gave ourselves a chance. We got back to seven but we came up empty four or five times on offense with not really good shots."
The Cougars cut the deficit to 61-54 when Nate Austin powered a layup over Jakob Poeltl, who otherwise dominated the game on both ends of the floor with 26 points, 13 rebounds and five blocked shots. But Kyle Collinsworth picked up an offensive foul, his fourth foul, on BYU's next possession and headed to the bench.
The Utes eventually built a 78-59 lead before some late BYU baskets made the final score closer than the game was.
In the waning moments, BYU freshman Nick Emery appeared to take a swing at Utah guard Brandon Taylor and was issued a flagrant 2 foul and ejected.
Rose said the officials told him it was an easy, obvious call and the coach expects Emery will have to sit out Saturday's game against Weber State.
Everything Rose said he didn't want to have happened in the first half, happened in the first half.
Corbin Kaufusi picked up a foul on a Poeltl putback 17 seconds into the game, and by the time the half was over Kaufusi, fellow starter Kyle Davis, fellow big man Nate Austin and the indispensable Collinsworth had two fouls apiece. Kaufusi ended up fouling out with no points and no rebounds.
Not that it mattered who was guarding Poeltl, who had his way inside against every big man the Cougars had. Poeltl had 12 points and four rebounds in 15 minutes in the first half.
To add insult to injury, BYU's Jamal Aytes suffered a sprained ankle and didn't return.
"The first half was really disheartening," Rose said. "We thought we had a good plan, and they were the aggressors from the very first. We had a hard time guarding the dribble-penetration, and when we did bring someone to help, they found an open shooter and shot the ball well."
Twitter: @drewjay —
BYU shooting by half
First Half • 11 of 31 (35.5 percent)
Second Half • 16 of 33 (48.5 percent)
Utah shooting by half
First Half: 18 of 34 (53 percent)
Second Half • 9 of 26 (34.6 percent)