BYU basketball notebook: Cougars got beaten badly on the boards — until it mattered most

OKLAHOMA CITY — Going into Thursday's NCAA first-round game against Florida, the BYU Cougars knew the Gators could potentially hurt them on the offensive glass.

They were comparing them to fellow Mountain West Conference foe San Diego State, a team that views every offensive possession as a two- or three-shot opportunity.

Florida lived up to the billing, burning the Cougars for 20 offensive rebounds.

"It's a real physical team and we had a hard time rebounding the ball," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "We got stops and we did a good job defensively, they just got second shots and kept putting them back in."

The rebounds that mattered most in crunch time, however, belonged to BYU freshman center Brandon Davies. Five of Davies' six rebounds came in the 10 minutes of overtime, as did his lone steal.

The steal came right after Michael Loyd Jr. opened the second overtime with a 3-pointer and the Gators came down and tried to feed the ball inside. Instead, Davies knocked the ball loose, the Cougars scored on the other end, and it was suddenly a two-possession game in BYU's favor.

"Brandon was such a good defensive presence for us, and we were able to facilitate our offense through him, and he got some big rebounds for us," Rose said.

All of Davies' rebounds were at crucial times. The biggest was after Jimmer Fredette hit a free throw to put BYU up 86-83 in the second overtime and the Gators had missed a potential tying 3 on the other end. Davies went into a crowd of Florida big guys and pulled the rebound away — ensuring that Florida did not get another chance to tie.

"We all take it personally whenever our guy or someone else's gets the rebound, so I just made sure that it was me that got the rebound," Davies said. "I missed a couple, but the ones that were there I made sure there was no way anyone else was getting that ball."

JIMMER IN THE SPOTLIGHT: After scoring 37 points and hitting two 3-pointers in the second overtime, Fredette was swarmed in postgame interviews by the national media. Most questions related to Fredette playing for BYU instead of a big-time program in the East. Fredette responded that none really recruited him, feeling he was too slow.

"Hopefully, I've proved them wrong," he said.

A REWARD FOR THE SENIORS: Thursday's NCAA Tournament win came on the fourth try for senior Jonathan Tavernari and third try for senior Chris Miles. Both were basking in the glory afterwards.