BYU blows out Westminster for Mark Pope’s 150th career win

Published: Nov 29, 2022, 10:57 p.m. MST

BYU Cougars head coach Mark Pope calls out to players during the game against the Westminster Griffins at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022. Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

By Tom Ripplinger

BYU picked up its largest margin of victory this season Tuesday night in Salt Lake City, defeating Westminster 100-70 at Vivint Arena.

“(It’s) super fun to come and play in this gym,” BYU coach Mark Pope said. “For the guys to … put together a pretty solid performance, I’m super pleased.”

The Cougars put together one of their best performances of the season, forcing Westminster to leave Tuesday’s contest the same way it entered: winless.

BYU all but secured a victory in the first half, nearly topping the Griffins’ final score with 63 points in the initial period.

BYU was coming off another dramatic victory, this time in an overtime win over Dayton that gave the Cougars their only win at the Battle 4 Atlantis. A key stat in that game was BYU’s 11 turnovers, giving the Cougars their fewest turnovers on the season and the school’s second consecutive contest with a positive turnover margin.

BYU bested that stat with just 10 turnovers Tuesday and again had a positive turnover margin with a season-high 22 assists against the Griffins.

Pope, however, feels his team has room to improve at taking care of the ball. “I still feel like we were a little bit careless at times,” he said. “I was really proud of our guys’ approach for most of the night in terms of them being committed to still making plays for each other. They all had a lot of success. … I was really proud of that and I think it speaks well for our guys.”

Spencer Johnson was again held out of BYU’s lineup Tuesday due to a knee injury, giving Noah Waterman the nod in the Cougars’ starting lineup for the second consecutive contest. Waterman made the most of it, shooting a perfect 3 for 3 from deep and scoring 13 points to make up for a zero point outing in his first start as a Cougar against Dayton last week.

“Hopefully Spence gets back pretty soon,” Waterman said. “My role has changed a little bit more … trying to fit in the starting lineup and I think I’m doing pretty well. Right now, I just feel comfortable. They’re giving me a lot of confidence.”

The Detroit Mercy transfer helped BYU jump out to an early lead, scoring 10 points in the first 4:08.

But Waterman was not the only Cougar to have an impressive shooting night.

Jaxson Robinson scored five 3s, putting his 3-point percentage at 54% over the last four games after starting the year 4 of 23 from deep.

“The rim was feeling pretty big for … me and Jax,” Waterman said. “Jax shot really good. … I’m (going to) blame it on the NBA arena. I think the rims are a little different; we get all the rolls here. It was great.”

BYU finished the evening 19 of 37 from beyond the arc with seven different players making a 3-pointer. Westminster’s 3-point shooting paled in comparison, as the Griffins scored just three.

“Our guys have no lack of confidence for shooting the ball,” Pope said. “If we let them, they would shoot it as soon as they cross half court. These guys believe they make shots, they really do. And we believe in that also.”

View Comments

The win gives BYU its second victory outside the Marriott Center, moving the team to 2-3 away from Provo. The Cougars remain unbeaten at Vivint Arena in the Mark Pope era, going 4-0 since he became the head coach in 2019. The victory also marked Pope’s 150th win as a head coach.

BYU moves to 5-0 all time against Westminster — the two schools having faced off five times over the last six years. All five contests have been double-digit victories for the Cougars.

Westminster will play its first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference matchup of the year Friday evening against Metropolitan State University of Denver.

BYU will again play at Vivint Arena Saturday afternoon against South Dakota with the game being broadcast live on BYUtv.