BYU at home in Laramie

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Dave Rose shuffled foul-plagued Lee Cummard in and out of Saturday's game against Wyoming so often it could have made him dizzy.

But the junior forward still delivered 25 points in pushing BYU past the Cowboys 73-63 in Arena Auditorium on Saturday.

The win lifted BYU to 17-5 overall and 6-1 in the Mountain West as the Cowboys, fresh off a win at Utah, fell to 8-12, 2-6.

Trent Plaisted teased Cummard for hogging the ball on their way to the locker room after BYU's third straight road victory. But Plaisted and Jonathan Tavernari each got double-doubles in the win.

"They're as good as advertised," said Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer, whose team went 0-for-15 from beyond the 3-point line.

The Cougars raced to an impressive 20-10 lead over the Cowboys but then watched Brad Jones, Tyson Johnson and Joseph Taylor lead Wyoming on an impressive charge to overtake BYU 33-30 with just over two minutes left in the first half.

But the Cowboys could not contain Cummard, who consistently made plays on both ends of the court from the inside and out and on fast breaks despite playing on and off the bench with four fouls for the final 13 minutes.

"We did a good job of playing within ourselves, and when we got in a tough situations, we had guys come through," said Rose, the Cougars' coach who saw Cummard and Sam Burgess each saddled with a pair of fouls early in the game.

"We played more zone than we usually do. With our starting wing players with four fouls early in the second half, the rest of the players picked it up and did a good job. We were able to go down the stretch guarding them pretty good without fouling them," said Rose.

Just before intermission, Cummard led a BYU charge that put the game on BYU's track for good.

This is when the Cougars took control of the game with a 12-2, Cummard-led burst.

After Ben Murdock scored on a put-back bucket, Cummard buried a pair of free throws and then scored on screen from 3-point land on a play the Cougars put in the playbook a few days earlier to end the half ahead 37-35.

Cummard and Sam Burgess both picked up their third fouls just seconds into the second half. But Cummard managed a bucket and Burgess added a trey to push the Cougars up 42-37, and they were never seriously threatened again.

"Plaisted and Cummard are both NBA-caliber talent," said Schroyer.