No. 19 BYU-Hawai'i rolls, 91-78
By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer
Alexus Foyle scored a game-high 23 points and 19th-ranked Brigham Young-Hawai'i remained perfect at home with a 91-78 Pacific West Conference victory over Montana State-Billings last night.
An estimated crowd of 800 watched the first-place Seasiders win their ninth straight at the Cannon Activities Center and improve to 15-3 overall and 9-2 in the PacWest with four games remaining.
The Yellowjackets saw their 10-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 16-7 overall and to third place in the PacWest at 8-5.
Last night, Montana State-Billings routinely double-teamed Foyle near the basket and forced the PacWest Player of the Year to relinquish the ball.
Foyle's teammates came to his aid, stinging the Yellowjackets with a balanced attack that featured four teammates in double-figure scoring — forward Austin Smylie (16), guard Spencer Lynn (15), guard Beau Nobmann (12) and center Pablo Broering (11).
"I had two people occupying me by the basket," said Foyle, who came into the game averaging 26 points. "The only thing we could do was make them pay from the outside. My team came up big. When they started making shots outside, it opened me up on the inside."
BYUH played without all-conference center Scott Salisbury for the third game. Salisbury suffered a fractured larynx when he was accidentally struck in the throat during a Feb. 12 game. Smylie, a freshman, replaced Salisbury in the lineup and led the Seasiders with seven rebounds.
"The absence of Scott is kind of on our minds sometimes, so we're sometimes slow to start," Smylie said. "But we get comfortable and that's when we start to play as a team. We do better in the second half usually."
In the first half, the Yellowjackets grabbed a 15-7 lead, but the Seasiders responded with a 12-0 run for a 19-15 BYUH lead.
The Yellowjackets tied the score at 20 and led 31-30 before Nobmann sparked an 8-3 run in the final 2:55. Nobmann scored five of his 10 first-half points during the surge. BYUH led 38-34 at halftime.
In the second half, the Yellowjackets closed to 53-52, but the Seasiders engineered a 13-2 run to go up 66-54 with 11:16 remaining.
Montana State-Billings closed to 70-66 with 6 minutes left, but couldn't overtake the Seasiders.
The Yellowjackets finished with 13 3-pointers, including eight in the second half. William Davison hit six 3-pointers and led Montana State-Billings with 22 points. Justin Hassell added 14, Dan Thompson 11 and Cameron Munoz 11.
The injury-plagued Yellowjackets came into the game with only eight players and finished with six because forward Kyle Stirmlinger fouled out and forward Bill Day injured his left knee.
HPU routs Western New Mexico: Aaron Abrams scored 19 points, and Leandro Maruoka and Nate Block both had double-doubles as the Sea Warriors dominated the boards in a 102-70 win over Western New Mexico last night at the Blaisdell Arena.
Maruoka had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Block added 14 points and 11 rebounds in the Pacific West Conference game.
The Sea Warriors held a 52-31 advantage in rebounds.
Hawai'i Pacific improved to 15-8 overall and 4-7 in the PacWest, avenging an 81-75 loss to the Mustangs on Jan. 18 in Silver City, N.M.
Western New Mexico dropped to 3-21 and 1-12.
Western New Mexico's Matt Enriquez scored a game-high 25 points, and Malcolm Connor and Adam Grimes added 12 apiece.
