Cougars KO Rebels in show-stopping thriller

LAS VEGAS — It was as if BYU and UNLV didn't want to be upstaged by NASCAR, singer Britney Spears' bare midriff or comic Chris Rock's punch lines at the end of the regular basketball season. The two teams staged a dramatic show on Tropicana Avenue on Saturday filled with controversy, huge plays, and 177 combined points in a thrilling game that ended with Cougar center Rafael Araujo's winning field goal with half a second to play.

All this one missed was a trapeze act on the high wire. Actually, it didn't need it.

BYU point guard Luiz Lemes (23 points) played the game of his career in sparking the Cougars' 89-88 win. Lemes came off a Jake Shoff screen with three seconds to play in the game to deliver a knockout pass to Araujo for the game-winner at the buzzer. It was BYU's eighth-straight win to end the regular season and may have cemented an NCAA tournament berth for the Cougars regardless of what happens in Denver this week at the conference tournament.

"The only thing I know is what I don't know," BYU coach Steve Cleveland said of his team's status with the NCAA selection committee. "I'm not taking anything for granted. All we can worry about is continuing to win."

The Cougars, who left the Thomas & Mack Center 20-7 overall and 10-4 in the MWC, will face Wyoming at 3:30 p.m. in Thursday's first round featuring No. 2 against No. 7. The Rebels dropped to 16-11, 7-7. The winner of BYU-Wyoming will face the Utah-SDSU (3 versus 6) winner.

"This was a great college basketball game," Cleveland said. "Both teams struggled to stop each other and it went right down to the last play. The performance by Luiz may be the best by a point guard since I've been here."

Araujo's game-winner came after UNLV's Odartey Blankson scored with 15 seconds to play to give UNLV an 88-87 advantage. The big senior's dramatic finish was bigger still after he was passionately booed earlier for a clash with a Rebel that earned him a technical.

"It's awesome," Araujo said. "We finished strong and we believe in each other and this just shows how good of a team we have become."

The Cougars started their final possession with two ball screens at the top of the key.

"Coach Cleveland told me to look for my shot," said Lemes, who noticed early in the last BYU possession that Araujo's man had left the big center and come at him instead.