Cougar defense clamps down on Laval

PROVO — BYU opened its exhibition preseason slate with a convincing 91-60 win over Laval University of Quebec on Friday night in the Marriott Center.

Trent Plaisted scored 18 points and Jonathan Tavernari and Sam Burgess added 15 each to lead the Cougars, who shot 10 of 15 from beyond the arc, 50 percent from the field and played everyone in a uniform.

Leading 42-29 at the half, the Cougars used a smothering defense in the opening minutes of the second half to trigger an 18-5 run, matching five first-half steals in just five minutes.

Plaisted said BYU coach Dave Rose had a word about defense at the half, and that fired up the squad.

"Absolutely, he did," said Plaisted. "We didn't play well in the first half. Even up by 13 in the first half, we didn't play BYU basketball. We want to play hard on defense, push the ball up the court and impose our will on them. We took coach Rose's talk to heart."

Laval converted 21 of 57 shots for 36.8 percent from the field. The Cougars ended up with 13 steals but had 14 turnovers.

"I was surprised at their (BYU) execution at this time of the year," said Laval coach Jacques Paiement.

Rose didn't like the 11 offensive boards by Laval in the first half and the fact his team didn't make it to the free-throw line.

He did like the help defense he got out of the Cougars. Burgess led the Cougars with four steals.

"I was really pleased with our effort coming out of the locker room the second half," Rose said. "We settled down and played a lot more together as a group. I told our players we were too inconsistent in the first half. Some of that may have been due to some substitution patterns."

Lee Cummard, who had a bad first half, hitting just 2 of 10, finished with 11 points on 4 of 13 shots.

Burgess and Tavernari each had three 3-point field goals while Plaisted hit on 8 of 10 shots from he field.

The Cougars held Laval's leading scorer, Jean-Philippe Morin, to just 13 points on 5 of 17 shooting. Tavernari and freshman Chris Collinsworth got the bulk of the work on the fifth-year player, who averages 21 points a game.