Cougars crash in San Diego

SAN DIEGO — BYU brought its No. 21 ranking on the road with junk in its trunk, and San Diego State promptly put a dent in it. The Aztecs coasted to an 86-74 win before a sellout crowd of 12,414 in Cox Arena.

The Aztecs used a smothering defense in the opening minutes to slow down the Cougars' offense and raced to a 23-point lead.

While the Cougars whipped the Aztecs by 22 in Provo, it was a marked turnaround here. In BYU's win, the Cougars had Rashaun Broadus. They could have used him on this day when ball-handling issues surfaced early.

SDSU ended BYU's eight-game win streak. The Cougars (21-7, 11-3) play at Air Force on Tuesday with a second chance to clinch at least a tie for the Mountain West regular-season title before finishing the at home against Utah on March 3.

The Aztecs (20-8, 9-5) got 30 points from senior guard Brandon Heath and shot a blistering 58 percent from the field. But it was SDSU's early defense that launched the Aztecs to a 22-4 lead they never relinquished.

SDSU dismantled BYU's guard line early. Overplaying post passes to Keena Young and Trent Plaisted, the Aztecs tipped away a lot of routine Cougar passes. Heath, who had 18 points in 13 minutes to open the game, joined point guard Richie Williams in disrupting passes intended as part of the Cougar motion offense and combined for eight steals. For the game, BYU had 19 turnovers, 12 of them on SDSU steals.

"You can overcome 19 turnovers, but when 12 of them are steals, that's pretty tough to come back on," said BYU coach Dave Rose.

"I credit San Diego State. They came out and played hard, got great performances from Heath and Mohamed Abukar (27 points) and when you get down like we did on the road, it's tough to win."

The Cougars trailed 43-25 at the half and then, desperate to get back in the game, broke out their bombers. They managed to outscore SDSU 49-43 after the intermission, but it wasn't nearly enough to make a difference after the big lead the Aztecs had built.

Led by freshman Jonathan Tavernari's 5-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc, BYU went to the 3-point shot and delivered bombs on five of seven possessions. That strategy cut SDSU's 23 point lead to just 10 several times at 67-57, 72-62 and 77-67, but the small lineup of Tavernari, Austin Ainge, Michael Rose, Keena Young and Sam Burgess struggled to stop the Aztecs on the other end.

Tavernari led the Cougars with 18 points. Austin Ainge had 17 and Young managed 16. BYU made just two 3-point shots at the half but finished 10 of 23 for the game and outrebounded the Aztecs 30-28.

"It was a rough game from the beginning and we dug a deep hole at the start," said Plaisted, who had 10 points. "We got it figured out late but we were just too far behind."

Plaisted said the Cougars fought hard.

"That's a plus. We never quit," he said. "But SDSU played really well in a nice environment and they hit big shots.

"It's nice to be ranked, but it's even better to win a conference championship. Whatever game is next, we're looking forward to to it. Air Force is another team that plays well at home. Hopefully we can come out and play a full game and not just bits and pieces."

---

E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com