Davies, BYU have special comeback vs. Iona

By foxsports
Published

DAYTON, Ohio — Almost 45 minutes after Brigham Young completed the
biggest comeback in NCAA tournament history, Tuesday night had become Wednesday
morning and Brandon Davies was still sitting at his locker.


In full uniform.



Davies was reflecting on his own comeback, too, after the Cougars rallied for a
78-72 victory against the Iona Gaels.



Removed from the team just before last season’s NCAA tournament for admitting to having premarital sex, a violation
of BYU's honor code, Davies missed the team's two tournament victories. His absence might
have been the reason the Jimmer Fredette-led Cougars didn't go deeper in last year's Big Dance.
At the time of Davies’ suspension, the Cougars were ranked No. 3 in the country
and might have been in line for a No. 1 seed.



Tuesday night, they were one of two No. 14 seeds on the floor in the First Four
and seemed in line for a big-stage beatdown. A lightning-quick Iona team
dominated early and built a 25-point lead in the first 14
minutes.




















But using a zone defense to slow Iona and accentuate its size
advantage, BYU steadily rallied. The Cougars trimmed the lead to 15 by halftime
and finally grabbed a 71-70 lead on Noah Hartsock's 3-pointer with 2:28 to go.

After missed opportunities by both teams, the score was still 71-70 with 45 seconds left.

That's when Davies made a strong
move with the ball and drew a fifth foul on Iona's Mike Glover. Davies made both
free throws for a 73-70 lead.



"They had us down, but we weren't down and out," Davies said.
"We tried to get things going inside, but until later we weren't able to
do that. We had to settle down and slow everything down.



"I waited for this. It was hard. It's hard to think I missed it (last
year), but it's just good to be playing and moving forward in this year's
tournament."



Iona's tallest starter was Glover, who's generously listed at 6-7. The Gaels' speed and
outside shooting beat the Cougars' size early, but BYU eventually turned it into a halfcourt
game and won it there. The 6-9 Davies and 6-8 Hartsock combined for 41 points
and 20 rebounds, with Davies scoring 18, grabbing 15 rebounds and blocking two
shots.



While the nation hardly knew Iona, Davies' story is hard to forget. After all the buzz surrounding his dismissal, he was the
focal point of more than his share of camera close-ups as he watched last
year's NCAA tournament wearing street clothes on the BYU bench.



Davies voluntarily withdrew from BYU after the season, but he was
readmitted to school and the team last August.



Adopted by a single mother and raised a Mormon while growing up just a few
blocks from BYU, Davies said even in his toughest times over the past year he
envisioned being back on the floor in Cougars colors this season. 



"I'm just grateful to be able to help my teammates and be there for them
in the big moments," Davies said. "Those guys were all so good to me
when I needed them."












































Hartsock, who finished with a game-high 23 points, is happy Davies returned to the team this season.

"Brandon has been a big contributor ever since he's
been here,” Hartsock said. “It was tough for him last year. He's glad being
back, and I'm glad, too. You saw tonight what he means to us."



In building a 49-24 lead 14 minutes in, Iona was scoring so quickly
that the vibe from the trivia questions on the arena video screens might have felt more than a coincidence — the all-time record for points by one team in an
NCAA tournament game was 149 by Loyola-Marymount.










Iona scored 80 points or more in 19 games this season and
was the nation's highest-scoring team at 83.3 points per game. After scoring 55
in the first 16 minutes, the Gaels scored seven points in the next 16 minutes.
A big part of that was a zone defense that caused Iona and its future NBA point
guard, Scott Machado, to do more standing and lateral passing and less
aggressive attacking.



"We've played more zone this year than probably we've ever played in the
six years we've been together as a staff," BYU coach Dave Rose said.
"It's gotten better for us. And with Brandon, as good as he is in the
middle of that zone, as long as he is, as good as he is rebounding and
challenging shots, it actually had us look more and more at playing zone and we
kept winning games, and so we kept playing it."



Davies has controlled the paint for much of the year. He's now blocked 45 shots
— more than he did in his first two years combined — and also has taken 30
charges. He and Hartsock are 1,000-point career scorers. Davies entered the game averaging 15 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.



Davies had 12 points and five rebounds in the first half Tuesday but was
charged with five turnovers. Excluding missing the front end of a one-and-one
with 1:18 left, he was much more poised — and productive — in the second
half.



"There was a time where I think Brandon took the ball from halfcourt and
dribbled it on the break and (got called for a) charge, and it just was not
him," Rose said. "It's not what he does.
































“I kind of brought him over at the timeout and just
explained some things to him about how important it was for him to play well
for us, but for himself; that he waited for such a long time and worked so hard
to be in this situation, let's at least play like you play and make the plays
you make.



"I think he settled down from there, and I'm happy. I'm really happy for
him. He's been through a lot, but he's been terrific through the whole
thing."