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Cougars catch fire to knock off UNLV |
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JaredLloyd | Saturday, February 3, 2007, 9:54 pm
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Jared Lloyd
DAILY HERALD
Many BYU fans showed up at the Marriott Center on Saturday afternoon expecting to see a basketball game.
Instead, they attended a clinic put on by the Cougars on how to play college hoops.
BYU dominated No. 25 UNLV in just about every aspect of the game and rolled to an impressive 90-63 victory.
“It was one of those nights when everyone that came in was contributing and knocking down shots,” said Cougar senior guard Austin Ainge. “We put it to them in our house and you have to have some breaks to be able to do that.”
No one expected that a battle between two of the top teams in the Mountain West Conference would turn into such a one-sided affair.
“We thought it would be a dogfight,” said Cougar senior guard Mike Rose. “You do’t expect to shoot the ball as well as we did, but we’ll definitely take it.”
Rose led a barrage of 3-pointers from the home team, tying his own team record by knocking down 8-of-10 from beyond the arc. BYU set a school record with 15 for the game.
“We originally wanted to work through the post, but we had lots of perimeter shots and we were hitting them,” said BYU head coach Dave Rose. “I like it when guys come in off the bench and hit shots. We got great play out of Mike (Rose).”
Rose’s first four treys changed the tone of the contest. After eight minutes of tight basketball, the Cougar lead was just 18-16.
But over the next four minutes, Rose hit four bombs, sophomore forward Trent Plaisted threw down a dunk and sophomore guard Lee Cummard added a 3-pointer of his own as BYU went on a 17-5 run.
“It’s feels good to help the team win and I know that on the road that can be deflating to see the other team shoot like that,” Rose said. “That changed the momentum.”
The visiting Rebels never got the lead below double digits again. The hot Cougar shooting gave the home team a 15-point lead at the break and put 49 points on the board in the first half, the second highest total BYU has put up in the opening period this year.
It was a far different story from what happened in Las Vegas on Jan. 13, when UNLV’s pressure defense gave the Cougars fits in an eight-point loss.
On Saturday, BYU made some adjustments to combat the Rebel aggressiveness, including running the offense through Plaisted in the high post and using the quickness of the Cougar big men to bring the ball up the floor.
“We wanted to be able to get Trent (Plaisted) up the lane more quickly,” coach Rose explained. “We wanted to always have an outlet because we’re really spread out.”
Any UNLV hopes of a BYU collapse in the second half were quickly dispelled by Ainge. The senior started the final 20 minutes with five straight points, including a 3-pointer, that pushed the lead to 20.
The Rebels never managed to make a push to get back in the game. The Cougar advantage was only below the 20-point mark for a total 1:48 in the second half.
“It was total domination by BYU,” said UNLV head coach Lon Kruger. “They got us on our heels and just kept getting better. We didn’t get after them like we did in the last game. They pretty much did what they wanted.”
The only real drama at the end of the game was if Rose would be able to tie his own record of made 3-pointers in a game. He knocked down No. 8 with 45 seconds to go, much to the delight of the large home crowd.
Rose led BYU with 27 points while Ainge added 17, and the entire team shot 58 percent from the field (34-of-59) and 68 percent from downtown (17-of-22).
UNLV got 14 points from sophomore guard Wink Adams.
The win keeps the Cougars (17-6, 7-2) tied with Air Force for the top spot in the conference, while UNLV (19-5, 6-3) falls a game off the pace. BYU will try to win its fifth straight game when it heads to Wyoming on Tuesday.
∫ Jared Lloyd can be reached at 344-2552 or
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