BYU basketball: Fredette sparks BYU's big rally over San Diego State

SAN DIEGO — Off the court, BYU guard Jimmer Fredette has a quiet and shy demeanor. On the court, however, his personality of a fighter has caused a lot of pain for the Cougars' Mountain West Conference opponents.

In leading the Cougars to a stunning 69-59 comeback win Tuesday over the San Diego State Aztecs, the sophomore guard from New York almost single handedly delivered the knock-out punch with a career-high 28 points and five steals. Twenty of those points and all five steals came in the second half as the Cougars erased a 13-point halftime deficit to pull away down the stretch.

"It was absolutely a huge win," Fredette said. "We had our backs against the wall, and we needed to win that game."

The victory allows BYU to keep pace with New Mexico in second place in the MWC with 9-4 records, two games behind Utah — which hosts UNLV tonight. Overall, the Cougars are 21-6 on the year.

Coming back from a 13-point deficit at halftime and 14 early in the second half, or winning at Cox Arena where the Cougars had lost five straight, were not the stunning parts of BYU's victory Tuesday. It was the way the Cougars made amends for their worst offensive half of the season by coming back to score 49 second-half points on 59 percent shooting, and totally deflating an Aztecs team that appeared to be in total control two-thirds through the game.

"It's not fun when you lose, no fun when you play as good as basketball as we've played all season for 28 minutes and then not be able to find a way to continue it," Aztecs coach Steve Fisher said.

The Cougars shot only 26 percent in the first half, went seven minutes without scoring, missed 11 straight shots in one stretch and finished the first half making one of their final 17 shots.

"It's hard to regroup after a half like that, but the guys were able to regroup and get a win, so now we'll have some confidence going into what's next," Cougars coach Dave Rose said.

It was kind of BYU doing to San Diego State at home what UNLV did to BYU last month at the Marriott Center in erasing a 13-point halftime deficit.

"I've never been part of a game where we've come back and win like that," Fredette said.

As cold as the Cougars were in the first half, the game was still tied six times with four lead changes in the first 15 minutes. With a 10-2 run midway through the opening half the Cougars even took an 18-12 lead 10 minutes into the game.