BYU basketball: Cougars comforted by pending NCAA tournament at-large bid

LAS VEGAS — The BYU Cougars left the Thomas & Mack Center on Friday bitter about losing a close game to the San Diego State Aztecs in the Mountain West Conference Tournament semifinals.

But when they return home to Provo today, they'll be carrying some comfort believing they still have at least one more basketball game ahead.

"I mean, that's something that we can do to get this bad taste out of our mouth, is think about how we've played this whole year, how this season's gone on," senior Lee Cummard said. "We still have a chance to play. That will come next week."

With a No. 25 ranking and a 25-7 record, the Cougars should still get a bid to the NCAA Tournament when the field is announced on Sunday afternoon.

"Coach was saying that a lot of teams are going home at this point, not playing another game for the rest of the season," sophomore Jimmer Fredette said. "We have the opportunity, hopefully, to be playing, you know, again. That's what we have to look forward to."

Coach Dave Rose said last week that all three teams that shared the Mountain West Conference regular season title - BYU, Utah and New Mexico - deserve a tournament bid. San Diego State is now in the mix.

"There's not a lot of things that are going to make you feel good right now because of the fact that these are competitive guys and they want to win this game," Rose said following the San Diego State loss. "But, you know, the fact we're gonna get to keep playing will help us through it."

Big-time bench effort: A big bright spot for BYU from Friday's game was the contribution from the bench. The 17 points off the bench was the Cougars' third highest output of the season. And none of those points came in garbage time.

In the first half, when the Aztecs were on a 9-0 run, Noah Hartsock came off the bench to score seven points and grab five rebounds in 12 minutes. In eight second-half minutes he had a rebound and two blocks.

"Noah played 20 minutes of really competitive basketball as far as helping his team," Rose said.

James Anderson also came in and scored six points, with two rebounds, in only six minutes. Charles Abouo hit a big 3-pointer and had two steals..

Cummard leaves the Mack with another loss: Nobody wanted to win an MWC Tournament in Las Vegas more than Cummard, who has been part of BYU's six-straight losses to UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center and who has not won the tournament there.

"It's tough," Cummard said. "Last three years here have the same feeling leaving. You just kind of got to deal with it."

In 2006 the Cougars were eliminated in the quarterfinals. They lost in the championship game in 2007 and 2008. BYU is now 12-9 all-time in the MWC Tournament and 4-3 in semifinal games. As a No. 1 seed they are 5-3 in the tournament. Over all the Cougars are 24-22 all-time in all conference tournament games.

E-MAIL: jimr@desnews.com