The Cougars opened the 2013-14 basketball season with a hard-fought victory thanks to some great guard play.

The BYU men’s basketball team was at home on Friday night to take on the Weber State Wildcats in an in-state matchup.

The Cougars got off to a fast start and never looked back in an 81-72 win.  They were led on the night by a trio of guards who will no doubt be called upon to carry the Cougars all season long.  Tyler Haws led the way on this night with 28 points on 9-of-21 shooting from the field.  He also got to the free-throw line 12 times and converted nine of them.  Haws also led BYU on the glass with 13 boards.

Matt Carlino also made his presence felt early and often and finished the game with 22 points on 10-of-22 shooting as well as six rebounds, six assists and two steals.

The Cougars also got huge contributions from their third starting guard, sophomore Kyle Collinsworth.  He finished with 11 points, ten rebounds and six assists.

BYU opened the game by scoring 17 of the game’s first 20 points as the Wildcats struggled from the field early on.

In fact, it took more than 11 minutes of game action before anyone not named Kyle Tresnak made a field goal for Weber State.

The Cougars led most of the first half by double figures with a lead as big as 19 in the first 20 minutes.  Weber State was able to end the half on an 11-to-3 run to go into half only trailing by 11.

The Wildcats made it interesting in the second half thanks to some stellar play by Davion Berry.  Weber State cut the Cougar lead to six early on in the second half and had a layup attempt to cut The margin to four, before a great defensive play shifted the momentum back to BYU.  Tresnak had a clean look at a lay up when Eric Mika came out of nowhere to block the shot and give the Cougars a fast break.  Carlino took the ball to the rim and was able to convert a three-point play to extend the BYU cushion back to nine. That started a BYU 15-to-1 run, that stretched the Lead to 20.  Berry’s great touch from the outside kept the Wildcats within striking distance but they could never get any closer than the six point deficit they had early in the half.

The Wildcats Had four players score in double figures, paced by Kyle Tresnak with 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting as well as six rebounds. He was followed by Davion Berry who had 23 points on the night even though he didn’t score his first point until there was 5:44 left in the first half.  Joel Bolomboy led Weber State with 13 rebounds to go along with his 11 points.  The only other Wildcat to score on the night was Jeremy Senglin, who finished the game with 14 points on the strength of three 3-point shots.

The Cougars’ highly touted freshman Eric Mika had an inauspicious debut because of foul trouble and finished the night with just seven points on 3-of-6 shooting, to go along with five rebounds and three blocks.  Nate Austin also struggled with fouls and finished with two points and eight rebounds.

BYU didn’t get much bench production with five players accounting for only 11 points and three rebounds.

The Cougars will be back in action on Monday night as they head on the road to take on the Stanford Cardinals.