BYU men's basketball: Cougars beat Aztecs in all phases

PROVO — When BYU coach Dave Rose was talking about the Cougars' 38-37 rebounding advantage over San Diego State following Wednesday's 82-68 win, he could hardly contain the smile on his face.

"I thought we had a great defensive plan," he said.

Holding a team that lives on the offensive glass to eight offensive boards and only 10 second-chance points seems to validate that claim. The Cougars' three keys going in were: 1) to rebound the basketball; 2) rebound the basketball; 3) win by playing as a team.

The numbers show the Cougars were successful in all three.

"Tonight our guys were really engaged and locked in on rebounding every missed shot. It's hard to outrebound these guys," Rose said.

But what really helped the No. 13 Cougars get this critical Mountain West Conference win heading into Saturday's showdown with No. 10 New Mexico is how they converted winning the rebound war into points — to the tune of 20 fast-break points.

"Just in the way the game is played, when you play San Diego State, they rely so much on offensive rebounds to score that they're sending three, sometimes four guys. So if you can secure the ball and clear it, you're going to have an opportunity because there's only one guy back. I thought that was a huge key," Rose said.

The Cougars' swarming zone defense, which they played for the final 35 minutes, had a lot to do with keeping the Aztecs off the glass and out of the paint. It also helped the Cougars come up with 10 steals and force San Diego State into 16 turnovers. In addition to the lopsided number in fast-break points, the Cougars also had 23 points off of turnovers.

"The most important thing that we did defensively was rebound," Rose said. "We were able to limit their second shots, and they're really good at that. And then those rebounds led to some transition baskets for us and we were really good in transition opportunities."

Another number that shows the effectiveness of BYU's zone was the Cougars' 21-7 advantage in scoring from the free-throw line.

"Teams in a zone shouldn't foul as much because you're guarding space and an area and you're not always engaged in a man-to-man. But I really felt that in this game we were more on attack the majority of the game and that got them on their heels a little bit," Rose said.

The win improves BYU to 26-3 overall, and 11-2 in the MWC. New Mexico, who comes to the Marriott Center for a Saturday afternoon game, is at 12-2.

Junior guard Jimmer Fredette led the Cougars again in scoring with 26 points. He also dished out five assists, but uncharacteristically missed five free throws.