Provo, UT –
Noah Waterman’s first career double-double Wednesday night at the Marriott Center helped No. 18 BYU take down the Denver Pioneers 90-74.
The 6’11 Senior forward from Savannah, New York scored 22 points and grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds on a very efficient 8-of-11 shooting from the field.
“I was just focused on the team, I was just gonna focus on the defensive end. I only had four rebounds against Utah. That’s what I was thinking about. I’m going to try to get every rebound… that was my mind set.” said Waterman in his back bounce performance against the Pioneers Wednesday night.
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Jaxson Robinson added himself to the record books with eighth 3-pointer Wednesday night at the Marriott Center, which was also a career high as well. Robinson became the eighth BYU (9-0) player in history to have eight or more threes in a game
“Just trusting the work I put in over the summer, and up to now. I have great teammates, great coaches that have my back whether the shots are falling or not. I’m really blessed to say I have these guys as teammates and coaches. All I can do is thank them to be honest.” Robinson said, attributing his career shooting night.
For the third time in the 2023-24 season Jaxson Robinson broke his previous career-high.
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Robinson led all scorers as the prototypical wing scored 28 points on 10-of-19 shooting, and 8-of-16 shooting from 3-point range. Wednesday night would be the second time Robinson has shot 50% percent and above from 3-point range and the sixth time shooting 40% or more.
BYU’s defense was tested a little tonight as Denver (6-5) kept the came close for the most of the first half. For the first time all season the Denver Pioneers would be the first team to cover the spread coming into the Marriott Center.
Although Mark Pope’s team remains undefeated at home, they no longer have covered the spread against every non-conference opponent that has entered the Marriott Center.
Utah native Jaxson Brenchley led the Pioneers in scoring with 21 points along with grabbing seven rebounds. Brenchley was able to score as BYU’s main attention was on Denver’s leading scorer Tommy Bruner.
The Pioneers leading scorer for the 2023-24 season has been Tommy Bruner, averaging 24 per game on 39% shooting. BYU would hold Bruner to 15 points on 6-of-18 shooting from the field. Not the worst performance for the 5th year senior on the year, but second right behind his performance Colorado College Tigers.
“We didn’t give Spence a lot of help, we didn’t get Jax a lot of help. We said you have to go guard. I thought those guys did a great job. Clearly he’s (Bruner) is an elite level scorer. The tandem of those guys. It was a defensive clinic.” Pope said in regards to holding Bruner 33% percent from the field.
Early Wednesday afternoon the Athletic’s Justin Williams broke the news of a court case, In Ohio vs the NCAA, Judge John’s Preston Bailey issued a temporary restraining order (for the next 14 days) that grants immediate eligibility to any college athletes currently seeking a multi-transfer waiver.
BREAKING: In Ohio vs NCAA, Judge John Preston Bailey issues a temporary restraining order (for the next 14 days) that grants immediate eligibility to any college athletes currently seeking it via a multi-transfer waiver.
Next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 27, 2023.
— Justin Williams (@Williams_Justin) December 13, 2023
“We are trying to make sure it’s all real. As you can imagine communications between universities and the NCAA can be super complicated to get final, final stuff. There are still some nuances to the ruling that we are trying to make sure on. We do tend to end on the conservative side of making sure. We’ll see what we can do, how fast we can press forward and let’s go.” Pope said in regard to Marcus Adams Jr. potentially being able to play in his first game this season.
Adams Jr. transferred to BYU on September 2nd and has been sitting out due to the NCAA transfer rules. With the new ruling there could be potential hope that the 6’7 freshman from Harbor City, CA could play soon.
BYU looks ahead to the matchup against Georgia State. The Pounce enter the Marriott Center Saturday December 16th. Tip-off is scheduled for 7pm MT and the game will be live on ESPN+.
