BYU has no trouble taking care of Eastern New Mexico

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BYU basketball Coach Dave Rose was able to use a lot of different players from the bench in the team’s victory over Eastern New Mexico University 95-62 Tuesday night.

Tyler Haws led the way for the Cougars, putting in 19 points, and Brandon Davies added 17. Both Haws and Davies played just 21 minutes.

On the other end of the court, Rodney Blackmon led the Greyhounds with 14 points, and Jordan Romero followed with 12.

Agustin Ambrosino, a transfer from Salt Lake Community College, was one of the players who came off the bench for the Cougars and contributed.

Ambrosino finished with 14 points and led the team in rebounds with eight.

“I am working really hard in practice,” Ambrosino said following the game. “I am trying to help the team in rebounds when I play, and it worked tonight”.

Rose was happy to see Ambrosino play well.

“His biggest strength right now for this team is, offensively, he can stretch the defense, and defensively he’s a pretty physical player, a good rebounder,” Rose said.

Raul Delgado was another Cougar who contributed off the bench. The 6’2” guard got the crowd going with a powerful dunk in the first half of play.

“I like to dunk the ball when I have the opportunity,” Delgado said. “I like to get the crowd going. When you get a dunk it hypes the team and gets people going, so when we get the opportunity to make one we’ll make it happen.”

The Cougars played well on the defensive end as well. The team held the Greyhounds under 40 percent from the field and under 30 percent from the three-point line.

“I thought our effort was really good (defensively),” Rose said. “I thought we challenged shots pretty well.”

The game provided Rose a chance to play with his roster. Rose hopes to get the rotation of players down to eight or nine instead of 11 or 12. He said the players will determine how that will go, and hopefully by league play he will know how the rotation will be.

BYU is now 8-3 and have three more games before conference play begins.

The Cougars have a much tougher test on Friday against Baylor in Waco,Texas. Tipoff will be 7 p.m. MST and will be televised on ESPN2 and broadcast on KSL Newsradio.

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