Cougars Lose To Cincinnati In NCAA Tournament

SAN -- In their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1995, the No. 12 seeded BYU men's basketball team lost to the No. 5 seeded Cincinnati Bearcats, 84-59, in first-round action at San Diego State's Cox Arena on Thursday night.

Mekeli Wesley, the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, led the Cougars with 25 points. But the shooting of Cincinnati's Kenny Satterfield and Steve Logan were too much for BYU as the two Cincinnati guards combined for 6 of 10 shooting from behind the three-point line and scored 35 points in all.

The Cougars started the game scoring first when Terrell Lyday hit Nate Knight for an easy lay-up on BYU's first possession. The Bearcats came back when Satterfield hit a three-pointer and B.J. Grove hit a jumper and a dunk to put Cincinnati up 7-2. Cincinnati extended the lead to eight points, but the Cougars came back to cut the lead to five at the half, 35-30.

In the second half, Cincinnati caught on fire from three-point range, connecting on nearly 60 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. The Bearcats had 11 three-point field goals in the game. BYU, on the other hand, shot well under their season average from three-point land, hitting only 33 percent. Cincinnati also out-rebounded the Cougars 32-24.

The senior trio of Wesley, Lyday and Trent Whiting scored 49 of BYU's 59 points, with Whiting and Lyday adding 12 points each. Freshman Daniel Bobik added six points and Knight and Travis Hansen each had two. B.J. Grove and Antwan Jones each added 11 points for Cincinnati.

Cincinnati advances to the second round and will play Kent State, who upset Indiana earlier in the day. That game will be played on Saturday in San Diego.