BYU falls short against 'Heels

LAS VEGAS — Coming into this weekend's final two rounds of the Las Vegas Invitational and facing sixth-ranked Louisville and top-ranked North Carolina on back-to-back nights, BYU was likely seen as realistic of a contender as the Marilyn Monroe imitator singing the national anthem to open Saturday night's BYU-UNC championship game.

However, after Friday night's upset of the No. 6 Cardinals, the Cougars finished their two-game effort against perennial powerhouses with a 73-63 loss to the No. 1 Tar Heels and converted at least one believer — UNC head coach Roy Williams.

"BYU is a big-time basketball team," said Williams, complimenting the Cougars for their aggressive, physical play.

Said BYU head coach Dave Rose: "What I am really impressed with this group is how competitive they are, and this weekend was no exception."

BYU actually led 59-58 with less than eight minutes to play, but mustered only four points the rest of the way, falling victim to myriad turnovers and missed long jumpers.

"We competed, we fought hard and we battled," said Rose. "We played as well as we needed to play. We just did not execute down the stretch like we needed to."

Williams was mindful of the Cougars' late-game drought — and the likely reason.

"They missed a lot of 3s because I thought their legs were tired," he said.

Cougar center Trent Plaisted finished with a game-high double-double, 24 points and 17 rebounds, hitting on 8-of-12 shooting in a determined second half. Jonathan Tavernari added 18 points — all on 3-pointers — but scored only one in the second half and finished 6-of-16 behind the arc.

They were named to the 10-player all-tournament team, headlined by MVP Tyler Hansbrough, the UNC center who logged 21 points and eight boards.

BYU had 25 field goals to UNC's 24, including a 7-2 margin on 3-pointers. But the Cougars hit only 1-of-13 treys in the second half — most misses coming late in the game — and saw their 6-of-9 performance from the line dwarfed by the Heels' 23-of-30 free throws.

Also costly were the 21 BYU turnovers, while UNC had only 10.

Cougar junior Lee Cummard added 10 points in 23 foul-plagued minutes.