Big win for Cougars

PROVO — In the twilight of his career, BYU senior Mark Bigelow's found a new role: the man of assists.

Bigelow dished out a career-high nine assists, most of them all to center Rafael Araujo, to oil up BYU's offense in a hard-fought battle with Wyoming on Monday night. The Cougars defeated the Cowboys 78-64.

The win lifted BYU to 12-4 (2-1) on the season as the Cowboys dropped to 8-8 overall and 1-2 in the MWC.

Bigelow made it look easy. He got on the wing and went against Steve Cleveland's season-long plan to attack the post from the top of the key. He winged in pass after pass to Araujo, especially in the crucial second half when the Cowboys stuck to the Cougars. One of his passes, a rope for a Mike Hall dunk in the first half brought the house down.

Bigelow's three-pointer with 11:51 to go in the game, pushed him past legendary BYU center Kresimir Cosic on BYU's all-time scoring list.

"This is the best overall game Mark Big-

elow has played," said Cleveland. "He played defense and had a great night getting the ball inside. We wanted Araujo to have more touches and he may have had 35 tonight."

Bigelow's efforts helped Araujo net 24 points. But it wasn't all that easy.

The Cowboys, just like in the Huntsman Center Saturday afternoon, came at the Cougars and gave them all they wanted. It was a good thing the game was in Provo where BYU has a big comfort zone.

Araujo picked up his second and third personal fouls just two minutes into the second half and sat down five minutes after intermission. Cleveland then made a big gamble. His offense needed help and the big guy forced Wyoming to respect the paint.

Cleveland brought Araujo in for Jake Shoff just seconds after taking him out at the 14:09 mark to play soft, switching Garner Meads on 7-footer Alex Dunn. Araujo's job was to lag around 6-foot-9 Omoniyi Makun who failed to make a bucket in the first half.

The move paid off. Dunn got in trouble and Araujo, except for being generally intimidating and blocking three more shots, kept out of foul trouble, playing the remainder of the game without getting another foul.

Garner Meads, taking advantage of the attention to Araujo, had 13 points and nine rebounds in a solid effort for the redshirt freshman.

"He made a couple of baskets which gave him confidence, and he's been getting rebounds," Cleveland said.