By James Davis
With returning starters taking control early and newcomers contributing throughout, BYU coasted to a resounded 90-47 win over Brock University Thursday, (Nov. 2, 2006) at the Marriott Center.
Freshman guard Jordan Cameron gave BYU its biggest lead of the night, a 52 point margin, with 2:04 to go in the second half when he collected a pass from Dixie State transfer Ben Murdock on the break to put the Cougars up 88-36.
Cameron finished the game with nine of BYU''s 50 bench points in 13 minutes of play. He added six boards and two steals. The Cougars managed to turn 20 Brock turnovers into 24 points.
'Jordan''s the type of guy-he''s one of those freshman that goes really, really fast,' Trent Plaisted said. 'And it was good to see him kind of be able to slow down and knock down some shots and get his feet wet.'
Keena Young and Plaisted both chipped in a team-leading 13 points for BYU in limited minutes while Plaisted added a team-leading eight rebounds. The Cougar offense shot a blistering 51.4 percent to go along with a defense that held the Badgers to just 25 percent shooting from the field.
'We live and die by the three, and tonight we died,' Brock coach Ken Murray said. 'We have to give BYU all the credit in the world because they made us shoot the shot a lot quicker than we''re used to'
For the Badgers, Brad Rootes led the way with 14 points and four assists, making regular penetration in the key against the Cougar defense before trying to kick the ball out to his players on the perimeter.
'Little four is tough to say in front of,' BYU coach David Rose said on Rootes. 'He''s got a lot of Steve Nash-like qualities and when he gets past you, he finds an open guy. Tonight they got a lot of open threes, which is really a concern for us.'
The Cougars jumped out to an early 11-0 lead at the 17:14 mark when Young hit a short jumper. After the Badgers'' first hoop, BYU rattled off another 11 unanswered points, capped off with a layup by Fernando Malaman behind a fast-break dish from Mike Rose. The hoop put BYU up 22-2 with 12 minutes to go in the half.
On its way to such a big victory over the visiting Badgers from Ontario, Canada, BYU fans got the chance to see the whole team come out and contribute solid minutes. While everyone got in on the action, a couple of players caught the attention of coaches, players and fans alike.
'I thought that Sam Burgess played with the kind of energy that we really need,' Rose said. 'I mean, he got himself involved in a lot of loose balls, contested a lot of passes. I thought that Sam''s energy level was outstanding.'
In addition to Burgess, big man Vuk Ivanovic, who red-shirted last season, played significant minutes as he put up 12 points on six-for-nine shooting while hauling in seven rebounds.
'It was a situation where we had a chance to play a lot of guys,' Rose said. 'I thought that was good, everybody got some minutes.'