BYU basketball: Cougars stifle Cowboys; Fredette's shooting on fire

PROVO — The Wyoming Cowboys walked into the Marriott Center on Saturday afternoon promoting four players among the Mountain West Conference's Top 10 in scoring, with each averaging more than 14 points per game.

BYU dealt those statistics a serious hit, and probably did some additional damage in the pride department, in holding three of the four to below their season averages and stymieing the Cowboys to 32 percent first-half shooting and 35 percent for the game in the Cougars' 84-60 win.

The victory moves BYU to 4-3 in the MWC — a game behind Utah, UNLV and San Diego State — with the Cougars' final game of the conference's first half set for Tuesday at Air Force.

"I think these guys are really focused in, and we've got a lot of basketball still to be played," Cougar coach Dave Rose said in praising his team's confidence in wake of the tough loss to Utah on Tuesday. "But we needed this win, and I think they all knew that we needed it. So I give credit to the guys for staying together and being able to get this done."

The Cougars held Cowboys guard Brandon Ewing (averaging 18 ppg) to only five first-half points and 15 for the game on 3-of-10 shooting. Six of Ewing's points came late, from the free-throw line, when the game was well in BYU's hands.

Tyson Johnson (13) and Sean Ogirri (9) were also held below their averages. Only Cowboy freshman Afam Muojeke (17 points) met his season average.

"We were able to stay down (on their pump fakes) and stay with their penetration," Rose said. "We attacked it early and played good team defense, and then we had really good weak-side help and got our hands on a lot of balls."

The Cougars' tough first-half defense really set the tone for the game. With the Cowboys missing so many shots and turning the ball over so often (17 turnovers to 11 assists, and BYU's eight steals) that BYU's transition game started on full throttle and never slowed down. The Cougars hit their first five shots and led 25-9 halfway into the first half.

"It's just a really tough place to play, and for our guys, so many of them this is the first time playing here, and we were just kind of shell shocked," Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said.

In taking a 43-27 lead into intermission, the Cougars were hitting 53 percent of their shots. Sophomore guard Jimmer Fredette was really on fire — making 7-of-8 in the first half in scoring 19 of BYU's first 36 points. He hit 3-of-3 from 3-point range during the stretch and finished with a game-high 28 — which was also a career-high — on 11-of-13 shooting.