BYU finds little nails in tagging Utah

Credit Utah for battling the Cougars on their home court and taking away some big things in the game. Still, the Cougars got their school record 45th straight home victory, extended a win streak to nine games and narrowed the overall series to within two games with this 67-59 win.

The margin was about what I expected, looking at the game early this week. The win lifted the Cougars to 21-5 and 10-1 in league play.

Dave Rose got this win with the little things. Lee Cummard had a solid but not great offensive scoring game; Trent Plaisted didn’t go off on the Utes or Luke Nevill. The Cougars had turnovers and spurts where they misfired. But in the end, they executed big plays when it counted and didn’t allow Utah the upperhand throughout the game.

Little things? Cummard and Plaisted have been on scoring tears of late but it was Jonathan Taveranri’s 20, including five in a row in the final minute that sealed it all.

Sam Burgess didn’t score a bucket but he had 8 rebounds.

Cummard scored just 14 when he’d been going over 20, but he had 11 rebounds.

Trent Plaisted scored just two field goals for 9 points but he knocked down an impressive — in his case — 5 of 9 free throws and the Cougars made 22 of 32 inclouding 13 of 17 in the final 20 minutes.

Chris Miles came in for Plaisted and drew a pair of fouls from Nevill, who had to sit the rest of the first half. He also made a couple of buckets over Nevill.

Freshman Jimmer Fredette played a key role as a point guard and shooting guard in this game. He scored 14 points, hit 4 of 7 field goals including two treys. His playmaking ability and penetration inside Utah’s defense in the middle part of this game, kept Utah off guard and the Cougars ahead.

Ben Murdock played 34 minutes and didn’t hit but one shot. But his three-pointer from the corner late in the game turned out to be a huge bucket in keeping momentum and a lead.

“We just executed,” said Tavernari. “We have guys on this team who are going to score. Two of the three (Cummard, Plaisted and his truly) are going to score and it doesn’t matter who we play.”

Jim Boylen had his team ready to play, credit his staff and players for bringing it. But Boylen also made it clear he didn’t like the triple advantage the Cougars got at the free throw line. He worked the officiating crew all game long, prompting Dave Rose to ask if talking to the crew like that was going to be the norm. It also brought Cummard into the fray when he had some words with Boylen during the game.

One of those officials was Winston Smith.

“He was working Winston over pretty good. I stepped in between them to give Winston a break,” said Cummard.