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Show Sunday, December 9, 2007 DAILY HERALD D5 COLLEGE BASKETBALL BYU Men Continued from Dl I I BYU was outscored by 17 points, easily the biggest onslaught faced by the team, which fell to Not even No. 1 North Carolina could put that kind of bruising on the Cougars, who scored just 26 points and had their worst shooting performance in 18 halves this year (30 per20th-rank- 7-- cent). A run started the MSU comeback to open the half. The Cougars usually come out of the locker room just fine, and they sure arent known this' year for allowing such massive s spurts. Until now. I A wicked scoring drought over the last five minutes sealed it. Ben Murdock, who played 38 minutes at point guard, put BYU ahead, right around that time with a shot. It was a heated, game (12 lead changes) and then the Cougars disappeared as MSU stayed ahead for good on the following possession. A barrage of missed, often hurried attempts and wayward free throws in the second half, plus some missed front ends on bonus opportunities) were aggravating. And some timely Spartan shooting from the line and the field sealed and other quality win for the with team, which is its only loss to UCLA. "It was a lot tougher to get a catch (in the second half), shots were a little bit more contested and it seemed to me like maybe we were in too big of a hurry, that it kind of caused us to rush things a little bit," Rose said. "It doesn't explain why we missed shots from the 14-- 3 54-5- 3, back-and-for- th free-thro- ninth-ranke- 8-- 1, free-thro- line ..." Rose's biggest concern, aside from the raw numbers, w up while going for an of fensive rebound. But that still was not as agonizing as MSUs rally. Morgan was there, yes, but the key was the recently 9 MICHIGAN ST. 68 NO. 20 BYU 61 NO. NO. WOMAN ST. PLAYH M Ffi ) FT 31 11 Morpn Gray Sum 33 23 32 Walton Nertzef look Lucas AIM 2 21 7 Summers 10 30 Naymick 5 6 0 2 13 4 2 0 3 0 2 2 4 0 0 0 7 2 0 2 Team Pf T? 3 1 17 2 3 0 2 2 12 2 3 12 2 2 IS 1 0 0 1 2 2 1 0 2 0 0 2 2 0 4 slumping Drew Neitzel awaking from his slumber. Izzo made him, chastising the senior guard for not taking some shots. I Bloodied Plaisted: It was He nailed a couple of early second-hal- f treys, got his tough for Plaisted to stay conteammates going and then got sistent considering he kept having to run to the sidelines everyone in green fired up in the second half for help with with an unintended assist to e Morgan. A attempt a persistently bloody nose. from the corner caromed high, He said he was popped three and Morgan swooped in from or four times. Once, just as a the right side. Much higher timeout came, it drew Rose than the hoop, he cradled the well onto the court to berate ball and slammed it home. Afan official for the lack of a call terward, Neitzel called it a "tip against MSU. 3 Totals 8 17 8 17 10 M I YU CUYBI Wasted M Tavemari 31 Burgess Murdock Cummard 35 38 20 2 F6 Loud Ivanovic Fredette 4 Colltiiswrtti Miles Team 1 2 0 4 3 2 3 0 9 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 13 19 Totals f FT 37 2 0 0 0 1 2 4 5 0 1 TP 2 0 3 4 19 6 2 0 0 1 1 2 0 1 1 5 9 0 0 3 4 0 7 7 Michigan Stats BYU 29 17 6 25 36 43 26 ch 15 30 13 61 66 61 ; long-rang- dunk." It hardly looked that soft, and it was plays like that which State guard Drew Neitzel puts up a jump shot against Michigan Michigan State 12 (Morgan 6, Gray 2, Suton, BYU during the second half Saturday Salt Lake City. throttled the Cougars. The Neitzel 2, Lucas), 15 (Plaisted 3, Tavemari 2. Burgess 3, Murdock 3, Cummard, Ivanovic, game tied at 43, 1 1 minutes left, Fredette, Collinsworth) Blocks: Michigan State 2 (Naymick 2). and the whole mood changed. 4 (Plaisted, Burgess, Steals: Michigan State Murdock, Cummard). Not even a "neutral court" that more, a luxury that UNC also kept it close. 7 (Morgan 2, Suton 3, Lucas, Naymick), (Tavemari). 16,412. Miss a shot, get another. was hardly bipartisan (16,412, used to wear down the Couthe largest crowd to see a colThat was MSU's specialty. gars late. "The only thing we did well," Also, Lee Cummard, the tallege hoops game in Salt Lake ented junior forward who even City) could make up for it. Izzo quipped. was how his team was bullied Izzo called the "X-- f actor" for "It gave them the confi- But he appreciated the efby the notoriously rugged Izzo fort. Extra opportunities saved the Cougars, found foul trouble dence that we had kind of squad. all day taken but of them," Cummard "The first thing we need to the day. just like against the said. "They were down but still Tar Heels. He was the only do is break down the film and Shooting just less than 30 starter not to play at least 31 get, possession by possession, executing their stuff, and they percent in the first half, missminutes (20) because of issues weren't knocking down shots. where we can show our playing 24 shots, that still was the But that little run gave them with the officials. same amount of attempts as ers what was being done," It took him the first 1 1 minBYU through the opening 20 the confidence to knock down Rose said. "And so, when ' utes to pick up a pair of foul minutes. we're trying to run this play, shots, and play with a little bit d more passion." instead of getting a catch 15 It's easy to draw parallels to calls while guarding the feet (away from the basket) on the Cougars' loss And MSU just loved putting Raymar Morgan, who led MSU with 17 points and six away the Cougars. Neitzel, angle we're actually getting it against North Carolina a cou22 feet out and we're off balwho finished with all but two rebounds all on the off ple of Saturdays ago. For one, ance. And those are things I of his 15 points in the second glass. depth played a role against the think we can correct. But it's a Spartans. The higher ranked Cummard had seven of half, cradled the ball and force of wills at times and you team had more of it. Trent BYUs first 20 points and Rose pumped his fist as the final have to have that will to get horn sounded. Plaisted, who led BYU with opted to keep him out for the g "I turned down a few shots rest of the half. BYUs the ball in the right area so you 19 points and eight rebounds, can execute the play." that coach Izzo got on me scorer had officials was on the floor for 37 minutes about in the first half and I It could be said that BYU signing his No. 30 two more Saturday. Sam Burgess saw 35 and hurt itself by not finishing the times, just less than five minjust wasn't as aggressive as I should have been," Neitzel said. utes into the second half. The first half with bigger than a Murdock, as mentioned, cushion. But the Spar"We were down and we needfourth one was particularly played all but two. MSU was able to rotate fresh bodies tans' offensive rebounding ed me to step up and make frustrating, as he got tangled goats 0- - 2, Neitzel (Tavemari - 6, Cummard Michigan State (Morgan BYU Allen Lucas Murdock Burgess Turnovers: Fredette STEVE C. WIISONAssociated Press BYU BYU BYU . ultra-talente- hard-foug- en-si- third-leadin- Dickson BYU Continued from Dl Continued from Dl Women BYU 72. UVSC UVSC PLAYER II Marvin Instead, Cummard stared at nothing and grimly waited for the questions to be over. Everything was set up in the Cougars' favor. They were playing at a "neutral" site (if the 16,4 12 fans in the ESA were neutral on Saturday, I'm Barak Obama's running mate in 2008). Michigan State was coming off a difficult road game at Bradley, while BYU beat Weber State in a home game on Wednesday. Once the game started, BYU hit all the shots, made all the plays and at one point in the first It was 5 at halftime. half led But Michigan State proved its worth in the second half, shooting 67 percent, getting easy baskets and befuddling BYU on the offensive 33-1- improve to 5 on the year, while after winning its first eight games of the season, UVSC has now lost two straight. "We took away their o inter and that was our game plan coming in was to take away the 3. We didn't care if (Robyn) Fairbanks scored 30," said BYU coach Jeff Judkins. "I thought we really defended well. We did a great job on (Sandy) Marvin. To hold her to nothing was quite a compli4-- atvK 3 T ( 35-2- end. ment." The Cougars? They were collectively just k like Vuk Ivanovic's attempt at a pass in the lane plain awful Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was pleased effort but praised with his team's second-hal- f How good was BYUs BYU effusively. "BYU completely outplayed us in the first half," he said. "I told Dave Rose that they're better than they were last year. This was a good road win against a quality team that I truly expect to be in the NCAA tournament. "I saw (former Cougar) Danny Ainge out there and I knew we were in trouble. I thought he gave them a e pep talk or something". Whatever BYU talked about in the locker room at halftime, it didn't work. Michigan State completely dominated the second half of shooting play. Drew Neitzel, who was in the second and in the first half, was hit every big shot for Michigan State. That's a pre-gam- leader. BYUs leader is Cummard, but because of a couple of tough foul calls in the second half, he could do nothing but watch from the bench. In BYUs loss to North Carolina, foul trouble limited Cummard to just 23 minutes. He had a perfect shooting night against Michifrom the gan State Jof-- 3 from the field, but couldn't affect the game line, nine points when BYU was struggling in the second half. "That was unfortunate, because he's one of our best competitors," Rose said. "His foul trouble doesn't bother anyone more than it bothers Lee." MARIO RUIZDaily Herald Trent Plaisted, right and Michigan State center Drew Naymick fight for a rebound in the BYU's second half Saturday. Cummard's role is changing. As a freshman and a sophomore, he was a catalyst with his defense while the scoring was done by others. Now, he's needed on the offensive end to relieve the pressure off of Plaisted. While sophomore Jonathan Tavemari is often hot and cold, Cummard has the post-ugame, the range and the soft touch to make opp ponents pay. Rose said he felt it was a good game for his team to prepare them for the Mountain West Conference schedule. No solace for Cummard or his teammates, who won't stop thinking this weekend about the one that got away. "We have a group of players in that locker room who are upset at themselves," Rose said. "They know they had an opportunity here. They know that if they had executed a little better down the stretch, they could have won." Could have. Didn't. A missed opportunity. I Daily Herald Sports Editor Darnell Dickson 5 or by can be reached at at 344-255- ddicksonheraldextra.com Fairbanks scored 22 points and Julie McMurray finished with 20, but the rest of the team managed to make just shots from the field. While the Cougars can all take credit for the way the defense played, it was Mindy Nielson who took charge. The freshman guard blocked five shots and came up with five steals. BYU center Lauren Var-le- y blocked four shots and had three steals. As a team, BYU held UVSC to just 29 percent for the game. "Our goal tonight was to get them to force a lot of 3s because we knew they like to shoot a lot of 3s," Nielson said. "We wanted to make them take some difficult shots and I think we did that pretty well." BYU blew out to an lead that left UVSC on its heels. The Wolverines could never could get closer than 10 points in the second half. Trailing 5843 with just under four minutes to piay, the Wolverines made one final push. A basket from McMur- first-hal- f McMurray Fairbanks Nakayama Bowen Peteison Beaman IG FT 29 31 32 R 52 PF A TP 4 0 1 0 20 22 3 7 3 0 3 2 4 8 1 25 18 25 4 25 Cornejo Reynolds Team Totals BYU PLAYER F6 M Nichols Foreman 19 10 1 0 1 3 1 1 1 52 FT PF A TP 0 0 0 8 3 2 0 3 0- - 2 - 0 0 Beck Judkins fled 0- - 2 0 0 0 Nielson Wood -6 -3 Carting Allele 4- - 17 1 5 0 5- - 11 Bell Moeaki 0- - 0 0 0 0 Slate 0 king 9 13 1 15 0 1 0 2 9 7 3- - 2 1 -3 Vartey 0 3 0 39 23 8 1 Cheesman 0 5 1 5 Totals 25 35 goals: 50 15 20 72 8 8 52 72 27 37 UVSC Fairbanks (Marvin 2, Nakayama (Foreman Wood Turnovers: UVSC 25 Slade Carting (Marvin 5, McMurray 4, Fairbanks 3, Nakayama 4, Bowen 5, Peterson 2, Beaman. Reynolds), BYU 23 (Foreman 3, Judkins 3, Nielson 7, Wood McMurray Peterson Judkins Cornejo Nielson 2. Carting 2, Slade 4. UVSC 1 (Bowen). BYU Slade. Moeaki. Vartey (Marvin 2. McMurray. Bowen. Carting reporters. "It didn't 'hurt that bad but it's certainly frustrating every timeout (having to get it worked on)," he said. "I have a couple of cotton swabs stuck up there right now. But it'll be fine." Besides a trainer, the Cougar d bench also put to use guard Archie Rose. He sat next to Plaisted and held some towels on his neck as Plaisted leaned over. The crew tried just about everything to get the bleeding to stop. little-use- ice-fill- I MSU didn't have a lot of fans around, but Izzo did thank the ones he had mostly in the second level for their Spartan pride. He said while in Utah he spoke to a group that had about 100 followers from Utah, California and Arizona. ... BYUs shooting in the second half was its worst showing since early last season against Idaho State. BYU shot 28 percent and needed overtime at home to win. ... BYU returns home Wednesday against Tip-in- 30.4-perce- caught them on a night where they were shooting the ball pretty well," said UVSC coach Cathy Nixon. "We gave up 20 offensive rebounds and had 25 turnovers and when you start out the game spotting them 13 points, it's pretty difficult to dig your way out of that." BYU took a commanding 15-- 3 lead to start the game, thanks to lights-ou- t shooting from the line. Slade hit a to get the Cougars going and after Fairbanks converted a three-poiplay, BYU scored the next BYU Moeaki. Varleyl Blocks: 12 (Nichols. Nielson 5. 3. King). Steals: UVSC 13 Fairbanks 2, Nakayama 5, 5, Wood. A 484. Peterson 2). BYU 17 (Nielson 3, Slade 3, Moeaki, Vartey 4). 12 nt points. Slade found herself open again and bingo, drooped in three of her team-hig- h 15 2 Marks Team UVSC BYU Plaisted sounded disappointed and stuffy talking to points. - ' Mallary Carling proved that you can't leave her open, either. She popped a for three of her 13 points. Varley then went inside for two and Carling scored on a layup. Cassie King added a pair of free throws to give the Cougars a 15-- 3 lead. BYU continued to pad its lead and led by as many as 18 points in the first half. After Jazmine Foreman made three free throws, the Cougars had a advantage with 8:10 left in the first half. But the Wolverines showed why they came into the game They charged back by to cut the using the lead to 5 at the 29-1- 1 ray, a steal from Rebekah Peterson and a McMurray cut the lead t6 5848, but the Wolverines could get no closer. 8--1. Varley made one of two free throws and Coriann Wood mark. Peterson, McMurray and grabbed the rebound, which Susie Cornejo all knocked turned into a Shawnee Slade down treys to trim the lead to layup. Nielson came up with a steal and was knocked to six, but by the half, the Cougar lead was back to double digits the floor. A flagrant foul was called, giving Nielson two free at Both teams will now turn throws and BYU the ball. She made both free throws to put their attention to next week. the game out of reach at 6348 BYU will play at Weber State on Dec. 12, while UVSC will with 1:53 left in the game. host Portland on Dec. 15. "BYU played well. We 31-2- two-minu- 35-2- Ducks too much for Utes High-power- ed MWOLOCAL ROUNDUP "We wanted to front him and make them throw that lob For the pass, so we can get that steal," PORTLAND, Ore. first time this season Oregon's Oregon's Malik Hairston said. "We still need to be better deoffense wasn't egon for Kent, who is second win list, fensively for 40 minutes." at its best yet the Ducks won ' on the school's 12 behind Howard Hobson, Porter had a again. who coached the Ducks from layup over Nevill to push Bryce Taylor scored a seaso193647. 20 points and No. 19 n-high Oregon's lead to 4940 with 15:44 left. Nevill had a layup 53.7 shot The Ducks Utah percent defeated 751 Oregon the first time Utah and Kepkay followed with a Saturday at the annual Pape to cut the Utes' deficit has allowed an opponent to s Jam at the Rose Garden. 50 to 4945. Tajuan Porter had 16 points shoot better than percent. Nevill was then forced out of "This was a great team for and Maarty Leunen and n the game with a bloody nose, Catron both added 11 for us to play," Porter said. "Utah is a great team and they helped and Oregon promptly went on the Ducks ), who entered a run. us prepare for the Pac-1- 0 (seathe game fourth in the na"(Oregon) played as well tion averaging 91.3 points per son)." together as any team we've Tyler Kepkay scored a caregame. This was the first time lead 23 to Utah in er-high 80 played," Utah coach Jim points failed reach to points they which missed eight of Boylen said. "They have a veta game. eran team, and they came out its last 10 shots. Luke Nevill, "We really had to grind and made some plays." Utah's center, played through the game today," Orin the first After Utah again cut Oreminutes seven "It said. Kent coach Ernie just egon lead to four, the Ducks of foul He trouble. half because of out gon's to a win was good get the way, even though we didn't had seven points in the second built a 9 lead on three half but faced constant presstraight layups by Hairston, play our best basketball" Taylor and Leunen. The win was the 200th at Or- - sure from the Ducks. THE de- fense? behind-the-bac- plays, but a lof of other guys made huge plays, too. The biggest thing, of course, was keeping BYU from scoring late. Five minutes left, leading by one, the crowd in a frenzy. Nothing could reverse 20 minutes of futility. "We should've won this game," Cummard said. ASSOCIATED PRESS high-powere- e ), (7-1- 7-- 0 (5-3- ), 69-5- Kepkay scored nine consecu- I Wyoming 73, Colorado 64: At tive points to turn Utah's 3 Laramie, Wyo., Brad Jones lead scored 19 points and Ryan deficit into a four-poiwith 7:28 left in the first half. Dermody added 18 to help lift Wyoming to victory over I Minnesota 91, Colorado State Colorado. 74: At Minneapolis, Minnesota The Buffaloes (54) clawed defense their way back in the game used a and a relentless offense to beat after being down by 20 points 18-1- e Colorado State. The Gophers ) reached 90 points for the win first time since a on over Jan. 3, 2005. at halftime. Loyola-Marymou- Air Force 77, Prairie View 53: At Air Force Academy, Colo., Adam Hood scored a career-hig- h 16 points and Air Force e ended a losing skid With Tim Anderson nailing a ers, Keith Maren pair of and Matt converting a tip-iHolland sinking a shot from beyond the arc, the Falcons (64) broke open a tight game with an 1 run to open the second half. four-gam- n, 11-- ) Utah State 88, CS Bakers-fiel- d 66: At Bakersfield, Calif., Jaycee Carroll led the Aggies with 27 points and Tai Wesley scored 12 points e Bain the win over kersfield. Cal-Stat- (6-1- 93-6- 7 scored 17 points and Wink Adams added 14 points and six assists to lead UNLV to a road win. Texas Southern 59: At Fort Worth, Texas, Kevin Langford had 15 points and six rebounds to lead TCU past Texas Southern. TCU 83, I New Mexico 57, San Diego 47: At Albuquerque, N.M., Darren Prentice came off the New Mexico bench to score 19 14 points of his game-hig- h in first the half, leading points the Lobos to a win over San Diego. I UNLV 84, Fresno State 71 :i At Fresno, Calif., Joe Darger I San Francisco 67, Weber State 65: At San Francisco, Myron Strong had 16 points and seven rebounds, and San Francisco made eight free throws in the final 1:37 to hold off Weber State. I Southern Utah 82, Oakland, Mich. 73: At Rochester, Mich., Geoff Payne scored a season-hig- h 32 points and added 1 1 rebounds as Southern Utah beat Oakland in a Summit League game. |