Cougars crush Cowboys

Wyoming-BYU boxscore

By Wyoming Sports.org

PROVO, Utah -- Brigham Young limped a little into Saturday’s matchup with Wyoming, but walked out feeling a lot better after thumping the Cowboys 84-60 in the Marriott Center.

With a few players banged up, including starting guard Jackson Emery, the Cougars turned to guard Jimmer Fredette, who scored 19 of his career-high 28 points in the first half as BYU pulled away early.

“Jimmer was playing really well to start the game,” BYU coach Dave said Rose. “He has a couple different gears that he plays in, which is what I think makes him successful. He did a good job of focusing, guarding his man, and then later in the game made some good shots.”

BYU (16-5, 4-3 Mountain West) outscored Wyoming 38-12 in the paint and the Cougars' bench outscored Wyoming's reserves 20-4.

The Cougars were also coming into the game off of a tough overtime loss to rival Utah. BYU played with more incentive than the Cowboys, who saw their two-game win streak snapped.

“We knew that BYU would come out with a lot of energy,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said on his postgame radio show on the Cowboy Sports Network. “They’re good. You don’t win 53 out of 55 home games in this building if you are not good. I give them a lot credit, they played really well. We tried to take some things away, we did a nice job of taking (Jonathan) Tavernari away, and Fredette went for a career.”

Tavernari, who went into the game averaging 17 points, scored just five points.

The Cougars, however, got 17 points from Lee Cummard and shot 57 percent from the field in the game. Chris Miles and Noah Hartsock also scored in double-figures, with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

“Sometimes your confidence can get shaken when you lose a game or two, but our team is really focused,” said Rose. “We really needed this win, so I give credit to these guys.”

BYU held Wyoming (14-7, 3-4) to 35 percent shooting for the game and forced 17 turnovers.
Freshman Afam Muojeke led the Cowboys with 17, while senior Brandon Ewing scored 15.
Muojeke also grabbed seven rebounds in the game and has averaged 7.0 rebounds in his last four contests.

“He’s becoming such a good player. I’m really happy about that,” Schroyer said.

Fredette's steal and layup with 9:26 remaining in the first half gave BYU a 20 point lead at 32-12. Wyoming was never able to get closer than 14 the rest of the way and trailed by as many as 30 late in the game.

“We didn’t play every well. I thought that was probably the biggest disappointment for me,” Schroyer said.

The Cowboys will continue on the road as they face New Mexico Tuesday in The Pit in Albuquerque.