Officiating frustrates coaches

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Trent Plaisted drew two quick fouls from Wyoming center Mikhail Linskens in the opening minute of BYU's 73-63 win over Wyoming on Saturday.

And that set the stage for a strange, foul-plagued contest that had both head coaches — the Cowboys' Heath Schroyer and Cougars' counterpart Dave Rose — pleading for clarifications throughout the game.

Wyoming and BYU players were called for a combined 40 fouls in the game as officials tried to control the physical defensive play deployed by Schroyer and Rose, one-time compadres as assistant coaches for four years together at BYU.

In the end BYU had to manage four fouls on wing players Sam Burgess and Lee Cummard for the final dozen minutes of the game, and Wyoming had Travis Nelson foul out in what Schroyer pointed out was just six minutes of playing time trying to stop Plaisted.

Schroyer quickly pleaded with the officiating crew after the fouls on Linskens, asking for a clarification. Rose soon followed when Plaisted appeared to be pushed on his post jump shot. Twice officials stopped the game to look at monitors to determine if BYU's Jonathan Tavernari should be awarded 3-pointers, and one was taken away.

"It's frustrating," said Schroyer afterwards. "But that's all I'm going to say. It was frustrating not to have our big guys in there most of the game."

It was equally frustrating for the Cougars, who had a tough time defending Wyoming's talented guard tandem of Brad Jones and Brandon Ewing. Due to the penetration of that pair, Wyoming outscored BYU 48 to 22 inside the paint.

Burgess and Cummard took the brunt of the calls, trying to stop Ewing and Jones.

"I'm trying," said Burgess of his foul trouble. "I am trying. I don't play a laid-back game and when they're protecting those guys. it's the same every year. So I'm not surprised, especially with Jones jumping into you."

Cummard, who Rose had to shuffle in and out of the game, added, "There were a lot of ticky-tacky calls, but it went both ways and they were consistent.

"Yeah, it was an interesting, as far as the rhythm of the game. I don't know if it had a great flow to it. I try not to get involved in officiating, all it does is get me in trouble. All you can do is play the game and try to get a win, and that's what we did."

COUGAR TIDBITS: Saturday's game marked the first time Plaisted has hit six free rows in a game since he made eight against Michigan State. ... With his 25 points, Cummard scored 20 or more for the third straight game. ... The last time BYU held an opponent without a 3-point field goal was in a game against Utah State in December 2006 when the Aggies went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc.

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E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com