BYU basketball: Wyoming's Johnson helps Wake win

PROVO — A big guy from Mountain West Conference country helped his Atlantic Coast Conference team — No. 6 Wake Forest — snap BYU's 53-game home-court winning streak Saturday night.

James Johnson, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound sophomore forward from Cheyenne, Wyo., scored 22 points and pulled down 15 rebounds as the Demon Deacons downed the Cougars, 94-87, before the second-largest crowd ever (23,096) in the Marriott Center.

Among those in attendance were members of Johnson's family — he has six brothers and two sisters — who drove to Provo from Cheyenne.

Johnson seemed to relish playing a game in the Mountain time zone.

"So far, I haven't been able to play (anywhere) near this close (to home)," he said. "I've got family who lives in Salt Lake — my brother does. It was great to play with my family here. We have a lot of Wake Forest fans now. They were everywhere in the crowd."

Johnson put an exclamation on his performance at the buzzer by swatting an errant shot by BYU's Jimmer Fredette into the 10th row.

"BYU's crowd was tough to play in. I'm not mad at them," Johnson said. "It was a tough environment. It was great to have this experience."

Johnson helped the Demon Deacons rally from an eight-point second-half deficit by scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 boards in the final 20 minutes. Johnson's put-back of a missed 3-pointer by teammate Jeff Teague, who poured in a game-high 30 points, broke a tie, propelling Wake Forest to an 87-85 advantage with 1:30 remaining in the contest.

The Demon Deacons, who improved to 13-0 on the season, never trailed again.

"JJ did a great job in the second half, especially getting tough rebounds down the stretch," said Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio. "That really helped us."

Following the win, the Demon Deacons had nothing but praise for the Cougars and their fans.

"It's as good as any environment in the ACC. They could play in our league, trust me," Gaudio said. "People at Brigham Young should be very proud of this basketball team and their coaching staff. They are very, very good. We were very fortunate to win."

Gaudio said he was surprised and impressed to see all the support from BYU students, who have been away from classes the past two weeks for the Christmas break.