BYU, Weber State basketball: Cougars shoot down Wildcats

Published: Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008 12:19 a.m. MST
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
OGDEN — The Dee Events Center at Weber State has always been a favorite place for good shooters.

Wednesday night it was extra generous, especially for the BYU Cougars who pulled away from the Weber State Wildcats for a 92-62 victory by shooting a torrid 57 percent from the floor. More important in BYU's seventh straight win and third straight road win, was the 63 percent second-half shooting that allowed the Cougars to turn a close game into a blowout.

"I don't think we had too many (shots) that were forced," said Cougar captain Lee Cummard, who made 12-of-13 shots for a game-high 30 points. "Most of the time our feet were set, and we made the extra pass, so we had good shots."

There wasn't really anyone on BYU's team, or even Weber State's team, that was having trouble honing in on the basket Wednesday night.

"They were looking pretty big tonight for all of us," Cougar guard Jimmer Fredette said of the Dee Events Center baskets. Fredette added 18 points to BYU's cause and dished out a career-high eight assists.

But the baskets were looking extremely large to Cummard, who had his second blistering shooting game and 30-point game of the year.

Story continues below
"Lee was terrific tonight from start to finish, and that's what you need to have to get these kind of wins," BYU coach Dave Rose said.

The Cougars looked like they were going to run away from the Wildcats early on as they raced out to a 15-4 lead behind eight points from Cummard, a dunk by Chris Miles and 3-pointers by Fredette and Jackson Emery.

But before BYU could even enjoy the momentum Weber State stole it, and went on a 20-5 run to jump ahead 24-20. Kyle Bullinger's hot hand from outside did most of the damage as he scored 11 of his 16 points (a career high) during the stretch — which included three straight 3-pointers.

"At one point it looked like he was going to go off for 60," Rose said.

Actually, both teams shot lights-out for the first six minutes, with Weber State sinking 67 percent during the stretch and BYU 57 percent. Even though shooting did cool off some on both sides for the remainder of the opening half, the game tightened and became a back-and-forth battle for the next 10 minutes with the lead changing hands at one point on five straight possessions.

Rose said the Wildcats were switching up defenses a lot and that was confusing the Cougars.

"Some of the things they were running were really causing us problems," he said.

Still, when Fredette drilled a trey from up top with 3:43 left before intermission the Cougars went up 35-32 and never trailed again. By finishing the half from there on an 11-7 run BYU led 46-39 at the break.

Recent comments

Cougs Dominate the state in B-Ball?

Yeahhh... uh they've beat...

A comes before Y | Dec. 6, 2008 at 3:45 a.m.

Yes let's give credit where credit's due and stop this obvious media...

USU fan | Dec. 5, 2008 at 5:36 p.m.

I have a novel idea for all fans whether USU, Utah, Or BYU. Why not...

Give Credit | Dec. 5, 2008 at 5:03 p.m.

Image
Courtney Sargent, Deseret News

BYU's Lee Cummard jumps up over Weber State's Daviin Davis to hit one of his three 3-pointers in the game against the Wildcats.

previousnext

Latest comments

World has ample oil supplies

I don't know why you're so upset. WE already ran out of oil years ago....

BYU records with win

I was at the game and yes there were some questionable calls. But the way...

Talk about going extreme! Pulling a ponytail is like a really hard pull on...

My high school team ran a similar play in the 80s. Penalized for deception?...

Utes turn attention to rivalry

I'm a huge Ute fan, but BYU has such a good offense and such a good defense I...

ESPN Go RSL

This team has been singularly difficult to watch all season - until...

Ample? Depends on your definition of ample. However there is not an...

He was everything you would ever want in a coach for your own son. My life...

Jansol, they are playing on ESPN at 8:30 EST

Advertisements