Cougars Come Up Short Against New Mexico

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ALBUQUERQUE -- Senior Guard Jimmer Fredette scored 32 points but it wasn’t enough as No. 9 BYU fell on the road to New Mexico 86-77 in The Pit on Saturday afternoon.

“I thought New Mexico played really well,” head coach Dave Rose said. “We had 30 minutes of the game where we were on top, but the last 10 minutes New Mexico was terrific.”

BYU (20-2, 6-1) held a 13-point lead early in the second half but could not stop the Lobos (15-7, 3-5) hot shooting before falling behind. The Cougars shot 41.8 percent on 28-of-67 shooting while New Mexico shot 50.8 percent. After making just one trey in the first half the Lobos would make 7-of-15 three-pointers after the break.

“We played hard enough to win, we just didn’t execute like we needed too,” Rose said.

Fredette shot 12-of-26 from the field and made 6-of-9 shots from behind the arc. He also added seven assists, five rebounds and three steals. Sophomore Brandon Davies scored 15 points and had eight rebounds while junior Noah Hartsock put in 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

New Mexico capitalized on a slow start by BYU and jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three minutes of play. But the Cougars wouldn’t stay quiet for long after scoring on four straight possessions to go up 16-11 midway through the half.

Fredette took over towards the end of the first half, scoring seven straight points on three consecutive possessions to stretch the lead to 32-26 with 2:35 left until the break. BYU held a 36-32 advantage going into the locker room.

The Cougars added on in the second half with Jackson Emery making a three-pointer with 16:46 on the clock to go up 46-36. Fredette added another trey for a 53-40 lead, BYU's largest lead of the game.

The Lobos trimmed the lead back to just one point with a 12-0 run and 11:20 remaining with BYU up 53-52. At just over the nine-minute mark New Mexico’s Kendall Williams made a three-pointer to knot the score up at 57.

Fredette answered with a three of his own on the next possession to put the Cougars back on top 60-57 with 8:28 of play remaining.

Both teams would continue to battle back and forth before New Mexico went on another 8-0 run to regain the lead at 70-67 with under five minutes to play. The Lobos would stretch their lead to 80-70 over the next three minutes with hot shooting from behind the arc that eventually was too much for the Cougars to overcome.

Up next No. 9 BYU will travel to Laramie to play Wyoming on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 6 p.m. MT in the Arena-Auditorium. Live stats and audio links will be available on www.byucougars.com and fans can listen live on the radio beginning with the pregame show at 5 p.m. MT on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM and 1160 AM out of Salt Lake City. The game will be televised live on The Mtn.

Official Basketball Box Score
BYU vs New Mexico
01-29-11 2:06 p.m. at The Pit/Bob King Court
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VISITORS: BYU 20-2, (6-1 MWC)
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
00 DAVIES, Brandon..... f  6-14   0-0    3-3    4  4  8   2  15  2  1  0  1  38
34 HARTSOCK, Noah...... f  2-7    0-2    6-8    2  6  8   1  10  1  1  0  1  36
04 EMERY, Jackson...... g  2-8    2-7    0-0    1  3  4   4   6  3  2  0  3  26
31 COLLINSWORTH, Kyle.. g  2-4    0-0    1-2    2  4  6   4   5  1  0  1  1  29
32 FREDETTE, Jimmer.... g 12-26   6-9    2-5    1  4  5   2  32  7  4  0  3  36
01 ABOUO, Charles......    4-8    0-2    1-2    0  2  2   2   9  0  1  0  1  24
12 MAGNUSSON, Logan....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0  0+
13 ZYLSTRA, Brock......    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0  0+
15 ANDERSON, James.....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   2   0  0  1  0  0   7
21 ROGERS, Stephen.....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0   4
   TEAM................                         3     3
   Totals..............   28-67   8-20  13-20  13 23 36  17  77 14 10  1 10 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-33 42.4%   2nd Half: 14-34 41.2%   Game: 41.8%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  2-7  28.6%   2nd Half:  6-13 46.2%   Game: 40.0%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  6-9  66.7%   2nd Half:  7-11 63.6%   Game: 65.0%    3
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HOME TEAM: New Mexico 15-7, (3-4 MWC)
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
32 GORDON, Drew........ f  7-11   0-0    1-2    4  8 12   2  15  0  3  2  0  32
53 KIRK, Alex.......... c  0-2    0-0    0-0    0  2  2   1   0  0  0  0  0   8
05 GARY, Dairese....... g  4-11   1-3    5-5    1  3  4   3  14 10  3  0  2  40-
10 WILLIAMS, Kendall... g  6-8    2-3    2-2    0  3  3   4  16  2  1  0  0  25
23 McDONALD, Phillip... g  4-9    1-5    2-2    0  3  3   4  11  2  1  0  0  28
00 HARDEMAN, A.J.......    1-3    0-0    1-2    0  0  0   2   3  0  1  0  3  17
04 ADAMS, Chad.........    2-5    0-2    3-4    1  2  3   0   7  1  0  0  0  11
13 FENTON, Jamal.......    1-2    0-1    0-0    1  2  3   1   2  1  0  0  0   8
21 SNELL, Tony.........    5-9    4-6    2-2    0  3  3   1  16  1  1  0  1  25
41 BAIRSTOW, Cameron...    1-1    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   2  0  1  1  0   6
   TEAM................                         1  3  4
   Totals..............   31-61   8-20  16-19   8 29 37  19  86 17 11  3  6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-31 45.2%   2nd Half: 17-30 56.7%   Game: 50.8%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  1-5  20.0%   2nd Half:  7-15 46.7%   Game: 40.0%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  3-5  60.0%   2nd Half: 13-14 92.9%   Game: 84.2%   2,1
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Officials: Bob Staffen, Kevin Brill, Shawn Lehigh
Technical fouls: BYU-None. New Mexico-None.
Attendance: 15411
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
BYU...........................   36   41  -   77
New Mexico....................   32   54  -   86
Points in the paint-BY 32,NM 38. Points off turnovers-BY 19,NM 16.
2nd chance points-BY 6,NM 11. Fast break points-BY 13,NM 4.
Bench points-BY 9,NM 30. Score tied-6 times. Lead changed-8 times.
Last FG-BY 2nd-01:15, NM 2nd-01:25.
Largest lead-BY by 13 2nd-14:37, NM by 11 2nd-00:49.