In what would normally be a bad sign, BYU’s leading scorer, Alex Barcello, picked up his fourth foul with 6:59 to play against South Florida on Wednesday and headed to the bench. As it turned out, he didn’t return to a low-scoring game the Cougars led by nine but still seemed in question.

BYU didn’t need Barcello to finish the Bulls.

The Cougars closed the final seven minutes strong, pulling away for a 54-39 win in the quarterfinals of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu.

“Sometimes those kinds of things are a gift,” BYU coach Mark Pope said. “It saved Alex’s legs a little bit and there’s going to be different guys every single night. That’s the great thing about having a team is that different guys step up and different guys can finish games. Certainly we saw that tonight.”

Gideon George helped finish the Bulls and made a trio of 3-pointers, including two in the final 6:30, to score 11 points. Freshman Fousseyne Traore also scored 11 points and added nine rebounds. Barcello had 10 points, all in the first half.

Caleb Lohner had nine points and a career-high 14 rebounds. Te’Jon Lucas, who scored just four points, had five boards and seven assists.

BYU turned the ball over 16 times but offset those miscues with a 48-30 advantage in rebounding.

Javon Greene scored all nine of his points in the first half to lead South Florida, which was dreadful offensively. The Bulls leading scorer, Caleb Murphy, was just 1 of 9 from the field and scored five points. USF made just 16 of 62 (26%) from the field and was 2 for 21 (9.5%) from the 3-point line.

“We knew exactly who they were,” Cougar assistant coach Chris Burgess said. “The guys followed the game plan just how we wanted. This was a frustrating game, having to win on the defensive end and following the scout. It was an analytical win for us if they take those shots we wanted.”

Scoring was a struggle for both teams in the first half. South Florida was just 9 of 32 (28%) from the field including three air balls and another shot that went off the top of the backboard. The Bulls also shot just 2 of 12 (17%) from the 3-point line.

BYU also sputtered on offense, turning the ball over nine times in the first 20 minutes. The game was tied at 13 midway through the first half but the Bulls took an 18-15 lead on a layup from Corey Walker Jr. with 6:40 remaining.

Barcello picked up the Cougar offense, scoring eight straight points on back-to-back 3-pointers and a layup. BYU held USF without a field goal for nearly six minutes and finished the half on a 16-4 run. The Cougars scored six points in the final minute, including a nifty driving layup from Seneca Knight that somehow eluded a pair of defenders at the rim as the clock expired, for a 31-22 advantage at the break.

South Florida (4-6) trailed by 11 early in the second half but the Cougars had a stretch of eight straight empty possessions, allowing the Bulls to pull within five, 38-33, with 11:12 to play. BYU got a big lift from George off the bench with a pair of 3-point shots and the Cougars outscored USF 16-6 the rest of the way to close out with a win.

“USF is a great defensive team,” Pope said. “They’re really, really long and really, really athletic. They’re also really, really disciplined. I was proud of our guys how they managed the frustration that South Florida can cause. We kept moving the ball and kept fighting.

“The key was that they didn’t get us rushed or sped up or staying on one side and getting sticky. I thought our guys did a great job of forcefully continuing to try and trust what we do and how we do it and it worked out for us.”

The last time BYU held an opponent under 40 points was a 63-38 victory against LMU on Jan. 4, 2020.

In other action at the tournament, Liberty topped Northern Iowa 76-74 and Stanford held off Wyoming 66-63.

Liberty (7-4) and Stanford (7-4) will meet on Thursday in one semifinal while BYU (10-2) will take on Vanderbilt (7-4), a 68-54 winner over host Hawaii, in the other. The Cougars and Commodores meet at 8 p.m. MT on ESPN2.

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