West Coast foes will clash when the San Diego Toreros (8-17) play the BYU Cougars (19-8) at Jenny Craig Pavilion. The game starts at 11:00 pm ET on Thursday, Feb. 18 and can be seen on ESU and ES3.
The Toreros are hoping for a better outcome after their 68-51 loss to San Francisco in their last matchup. Olin Carter III was the team’s high scorer, putting up 11 points. The Cougars are coming off a 96-62 win against Santa Clara in their last game. Nick Emery shot 13 for 21 and led in scoring with 31 points.
Emery has been on fire over the last five games for the Cougars, averaging 21.2 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.6 steals, and 3.0 three-pointers.
It’s a matchup of two different tempos, as the up-tempo Cougars (ranked 21st in the nation in possessions per game) square off against the half-court oriented Toreros (329th).
The Toreros are looking to improve on their records of 8-17 Straight Up (SU) and 11-13 Against The Spread (ATS). The Toreros have seen an uptick in scoring as of late, averaging 83.3 points during the last 10 games compared to their season average of 60.6 points per game.
On the other side, the Cougars have records of 13-10-2 ATS and 19-8 SU. The Cougars have been struggling of late. In their most recent 10 games, their scoring has dropped to 61.6 PPG, compared to 60.6 for the duration of the season. BYU is one of the top three-point shooting teams in the nation, converting .383 of their shots from three-point range. The Cougars are a force on the boards, grabbing an average of 41.5 rebounds per game. The Cougars are the better of the two teams when it comes to assist-to-turnover ratio, ranking 37th in Division I at 1.36.
This game marks the season’s first head-to-head clash between San Diego and BYU. Their previous game was a Cougars victory, bringing their SU record in their most recent games to 7-3. Furthermore, BYU leads the matchup ATS with a record of 6-4. BYU held the edge in field goals, rebounds, and three-pointers once in the last five game, while San Diego wasn’t able to do so in that span.
Predictions: SU Winner – BYU, ATS Winner – BYU
Notes
BYU is one of the highest-scoring teams in the nation, averaging 84.3 points per game (ranked sixth). San Diego allows 67.7 points per game (ranked 70th).
BYU won its last game by a 34-point margin. In games decided by a margin of 18 points or more, San Diego is 1-4. BYU is 7-0 in blowouts this season.
Ranked 29th, the BYU Cougars have an offensive rating of 114.0. The San Diego Toreros rank 189th with a defensive rating of just 104.0.
San Diego has an average field goal percentage of 39.4%. BYU is a winning 11-7 when opponents have a similar or higher field goal percentage.
The San Diego Toreros and the BYU Cougars both rank higher in average effective field goal percentage when compared to their field goal percentages. San Diego is 338th and 334th in the nation for FG% and eFG% respectively, while BYU is 56th and 45th in these categories.
BYU ranks 34th in assists, recording 16.2 per game. San Diego performs worse at 319th with 11.0 assists per game.
BYU, the 79th-ranked team in blocked shots, registers an average of 4.3 per game. San Diego does worse, ranked 119th with 3.8.
San Diego ranks 228th in offensive rebounds, while BYU ranks ninth in defensive rebounds.
On average, San Diego makes 4.7 steals per game. BYU has a solid 12-7 record when it gives up at least 4 steals.
