By W. Mitchell
A balanced, albeit tardy, attack helped the BYU men?s basketball team improve to 4-2 on the season, as the Cougars escaped with an 80-77 home win against Boise State Wednesday (Dec. 7, 2005) night.
All five BYU starters scored in double figures, with freshman center Trent Plaisted?s game-highs of 19 points and 10 rebounds leading the way. BYU overcame a miserable first half in which the team shot 39 percent from the field and allowed the Broncos to shoot 51 percent from the field. Boise State started the game off with a 7-0 run, and kept up the hot shooting the rest of the half. BYU was able to pull within one point three times and even tied the game once. But they couldn?t get over the hump and went into halftime down 44-36.
BYU head coach Dave Rose saw the Cougars lose a multitude of games last season after starting slow, but said this years? team is not the same.
?It?s a new group of guys; it?s a new attitude,? Rose said. ?I knew the guys would be fired up and energetic because we do have a competitive spirit.?
BYU proved its coach right by coming out with a lot more energy and even more resolve to attack in the second half. Junior forward Fernando Malaman knocked down a three-foot jump shot to begin the half, which sparked a 10-2 Cougar run to tie the game at 46. Senior guard Brock Reichner sank two 3-pointers during that stretch and later fed junior guard Jimmy Balderson for the go-ahead fast break lay up.
?Brock was unbelievable for us in the first five minutes of the second half,? Rose said. ?The fact that he was able to get himself open and had the guts to take the shots, it just gives everybody confidence.?
Balderson made the lay up and was fouled. His free throw shot put BYU up 49-46 with 17 minutes to go. BYU never relinquished the lead thereafter, but it still made the game more interesting than necessary. With seven minutes and 25 seconds left on the clock, junior center Derek Dawes hit two free throws to give BYU its biggest lead of the night at 72-60. The Cougars then allowed Boise State to go on a 15-3 run in the next five minutes, tying the game 75-75.
After a BYU timeout and a botched inbounds pass, junior guard Rashaun Broadus snatched the loose ball and found Malaman all alone under the basket. Malaman?s lay up gave the Cougars a two-point lead with one minute to play. Following a much-needed defensive stop on the other end of the court, Broadus drove hard and got to the basket. Broadus? lay up went halfway down the net and rolled back out. Fortunately, Plaisted was right behind him and tipped in the put-back.
?I told the guys in the locker room, ?Games like this one are what make teams better,?? Rose said. ?But you can?t just play them, you have to win them.?
Plaisted, who posted his first double-double in only six career games, called the win a learning experience, but said he would have been just fine going without the lesson.
?Personally, I?d rather blow them out,? Plaisted said. ?Your goal going into a game is never, ?Okay, let?s beat them by three and learn a lot.? We want to go in there and dominate the game. Coach Rose always says to impose our will on them. We got to that point in the second half, but we need to get there a little earlier.?