BYU basketball: Cougars hold off Wyoming's charges for another win

LARAMIE, Wyo. — There just hasn't been much panic in the BYU Cougars this season.

Even after seeing an early 10-0 lead quickly trimmed to five Saturday afternoon against the Wyoming Cowboys, the Cougars responded and pushed the margin back up to 13. When that lead was cut again back to eight late in the first half, the Cougars answered with four straight points to take a 40-28 lead into halftime.

And when the Cowboys came charging once again to cut BYU's lead to seven early in the second half, the Cougars again responded and pushed the gap back to 14. Then, when Wyoming gave it once last gasp with an 8-2 run to close within eight, the Cougars did what they've done so many times this year and threw a run at the Cowboys that was too powerful to recover from. This time it was a 16-3 stretch that put the Cougars comfortably ahead by 21 at the five-minute mark, and they coasted home from there for an 85-63 road victory.

"When Jimmer (Fredette) is playing well and they're trying to attack him and get the ball out of his hands, everybody feels like he'll make the next play and the right play," coach Dave Rose said of his team's ability to finish games strong and answer opposing teams' runs. "He'll get the ball to the right guy. He'll get it in the post. We'll get it swung or skipped for a wide-open shot, or Jimmer will make the basket himself. But I think we have a lot of confidence in our ability to make plays down the stretch."

The win improved the Cougars to 25-3, the best record in school history at the 28-game mark. The 1979-80 and '87-88 Cougar teams both had 24-4 records after 28 games. More importantly, the victory moved BYU to 10-2 in the Mountain West Conference standings, tied with New Mexico in the loss column. The Cougars host the Lobos this Saturday after first taking on San Diego State on Wednesday in the Marriott Center.

"The thing we need to know is that we're playing for a championship, and we're playing for a whole lot more than that," senior Jonathan Tavernari said. "We have to take care of business at home in this upcoming week."

Tavernari had another nice game off the bench with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, with eight rebounds, two assists and two steals.

"I thought he played one of his smartest games of the season as far as offensively picking his spots, when to dribble and break the press. And he passed up a lot of JT shots that he would normally take, and we got a better shot out of it," Rose said.

Also keeping the Cougars in the game early was freshman Tyler Haws, who scored 12 in the first half and finished with 22 points, eight rebounds, two assists and one steal.