BYU basketball: Reserves play big role in Y. win

"That's what he does for our team, he scores points," Rose said. "And it was a good thing somebody finally got one in the basket so the rest of them could start going in."

When Fredette scored two straight baskets at the nine-minute mark the Cougars finally caught Western Oregon at 25. A steal by Morgan and a layup put BYU ahead for good. By finishing the half on a 23-8 run, which in one stretch included 17 straight, the Cougars took command of the game.

"We just had to play the way we play, and play hard, and the rest would take care of itself," Morgan said.

BYU's lead hovered around the 12-point range for most of the second half until a run over the final three minutes removed all doubt, with the final 21-point margin being BYU's largest lead of the game.

"The most important thing with this team, is there's some good parts to this team, but this team has to play together with each other to be good and to be the team we want to be — a championship team. That will be our challenge, to make sure we continue to get better as a group. And we need a few more guys to help us right now. And we need the guys who are playing well to continue to play well because this conference schedule is going to be as tough as it's ever been," Rose said, referring to BYU's Mountain West Conference opener on Saturday at Colorado State.

GAME NOTES: Western Oregon's 11-0 lead early in the game was BYU's largest deficit this season. The prior biggest deficit was nine to Wake Forest in the opening half of last Saturday's game. The Cougars have trailed by eight twice and have only trailed at halftime twice — at Tulsa and against Long Beach State, both games that BYU came back to win ... one game after the second-largest crowd ever (23,090) packed the Marriott Center to see the Cougars battle the No. 6 Demon Deacons to the wire, only 8,885 stormed the bad roads Tuesday night to see BYU play the Wolves, a Division II university ... the Western Oregon game was originally scheduled for Dec. 23 but was moved to Tuesday night because of weather. Rose said it turned out to be beneficial to play the game after the tough loss Saturday to Wake Forest. "I think it was a good thing that we were able to play it. To get back out on the court, compete, get a win and get our mindset back positive."

E-mail: jimr@desnews.com