BYU basketball: Reserves play big role in Y. win

PROVO — In playing three straight down-to-the-wire games the past two weeks, the BYU Cougars haven't been going very deep of late into their bench.

Tuesday's home game against Western Oregon, a team BYU routed by a school-record 62 points two years ago, was supposed to be an opportunity for coach Dave Rose to get his reserves some experience.

"We need to expand the depth of our team," Rose said.

What he didn't expect, however, was that he'd need those reserves to play a significant role in securing the 85-64 win.

"I would have preferred a more inspired and consistent effort, but all in all the players played to a level where we can be successful if we get a consistent effort," Rose said.

All 12 Cougars saw action, with nine of them scoring. The 34 bench points were a high for BYU this season, and 22 of those came in the first half. Even though the Cougars were led by junior forward Jonathan Tavernari's 22 points, with Jimmer Fredette adding 13 and Lee Cummard chipping in 12, reserves Lamont Morgan Jr. and Archie Rose both had career-high scoring games. Morgan tossed in 12 and Morgan 11. Freshman forward Noah Hartsock, playing a season-high 17 minutes, added seven points, four rebounds, three blocks and a steal.

"Those (kind of bench efforts) are all things that will help us down the road," Rose said.

The Cougars and Marriott Center fans seemed shell-shocked early when Western Oregon stormed out an 11-0 lead. The Wolves drilled their first five shots while BYU missed its first nine shots.

"It's always fun to shut the crowd up early, so that was neat. Unfortunately, it didn't last very long," Western Oregon coach Craig Stanger said.

And it wasn't just one Wolfe that was hurting the Cougars. Even though guard Travis Kuhn drilled two early 3-pointers, hit four for the game and scored a team-high 15 for the Wolves, four Western Oregon got on the board in the game-opening spurt.

"When you get six, seven, eight shots in a row that miss, it's hard to find the energy to keep guarding at a consistent level," Rose said.

The Cougars' first point came at the 15:23 mark when Tavernari hit one free throw. But eventually, the Cougars did notch up the intensity and slowly closed the margin. The momentum really turned when Morgan, Rose and Hartsock entered the game. "I think the guys who came off the bench gave us a great lift," coach Rose said.

Still, it's hard to ignore the effort that Tavernari contributed to the comeback. When the Cougars went on a 9-0 run to make it an 11-9 game, Tavernari scored six straight points.