LAS VEGAS — Arizona's Nate Ness ran straight toward the crowd once the clock ran out on the Wildcats' 31-21 victory over BYU on Saturday in the Las Vegas Bowl.

The senior safety then asked a cameraman to point away from him and to the scoreboard.

"We went bowling and we won," he said. "Get the score. Get the score. We won. We got talent. I gotta go."

It took 10 years for the Wildcats to step back on the postseason stage. Once they did, they represented themselves well — from the energized fans who filled roughly half of Sam Boyd Stadium to senior quarterback Willie Tuitama throwing for more than 300 yards to head coach Mike Stoops finishing off his first winning season with a bowl victory.

Add Ness and the Arizona defense to that list.

The Wildcats, who came into the game ranked No. 20 in the nation in total yardage allowed, yielded 116 rushing yards and 444 total yards to the Cougars, but forced BYU into several long drives and made enough key plays to hold the Cougars two touchdowns under their average for point production. They also took advantage of Cougar miscues.

"We were aggressive the whole game," said senior starting linebacker Adrian McCovy, who had seven tackles. "We were attacking. We weren't holding anything back. As you see, a lot of their players were hurt. Everybody was out there hitting, going hard."

Arizona forced three turnovers, the most critical of which may have come less than three minutes into the fourth quarter. The Cougars trailed 24-13, but drove down to the Wildcat 31. That's when senior cornerback Marquis Hundley, running stride-for-stride with BYU's Austin Collie, intercepted Max Hall's pass in the end zone.

"That'll be the biggest memory of my life," he said. "I went out with a bang my senior year."

Hundley, who hurt himself on the play and was on crutches after the game, said Arizona's plan was simply to tackle well and hang on.

"We stuck to the game plan and played hard," he said. "They have big backs, pretty good receivers ... We mixed it up. We blitzed a lot toward the end, zone blitzes, we were in zone or we'd be man-free. We ran a lot of things ..."

"We were running a little bit of everything," added McCovy.

While it allowed the Cougars to hit exactly their average for yards per game (444), Arizona's defense held on third down three times after BYU was pushed back due to penalties, resulting in three missed field goals.

Ness also made a key hit on a third-down play in the third quarter, colliding with intended receiver Andrew George to force a punt. Three plays later, Arizona took the lead for good on Tuitama's 37-yard pass to Delashaun Dean.

Stoops, who entered this season with a 17-29 overall record, praised the play of his seniors after the game. That group includes Tuitama, who was given MVP honors, and all-conference receiver Mike Thomas, who had 29 yards receiving and 12 yards rushing.

"This was five years in the making, and it all came together in this last month of the season," Stoops said. "I couldn't be more proud of these players, these seniors to bring Arizona back. They played great all season."

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