Cougars Fall 60-55 at CSU

FORT COLLINS -- A cold shooting night from three-point range helped doom BYU Saturday as they fell to the Colorado State Rams 60-55 at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. The Cougars drop to 13-5 overall and 2-1 in the Mountain West Conference while the Rams improve to marks of 10-5 and 1-1.

BYU shot a season-low 6.3 percent on three-point attempts, going 1-16 from behind the arc. After missing their first 13 treys, Trent Whiting finally connected for the Cougars at the 4:50 mark of the second half to pull BYU even at 47-47. BYU, who had trailed the entire game, would never get over the hump in the final minutes, as the Rams were able to make the key shots to maintain their advantage.

Following Whiting's trey, CSU's John Sivesind turned the momentum back to the Rams with his own three-pointer and then cut backdoor on the next possession after a Nate Knight miss to put the Rams up by five at 52-47. Mekeli Wesley, out with four fouls, was put back in the game and quickly brought BYU to within one with back-to-back buckets.

The Cougars would get within one point two more times during the final moments, including a 56-55 deficit with only 34 seconds remaining. After two Sivesind free throws put the Rams up three with 11 seconds, Wesley was unable to connect on a heavily contested shot from behind the arc and CSU's Ron Grady added two more charity tosses to give the Rams the final 60-55 margin.

BYU had four players reach double figures led by Whiting with 13 points. Wesley added 12, followed by Terrell Lyday with 11 and Travis Hansen with 10. Whiting added a career-high seven rebounds to share team-high honors with Wesley. BYU totaled only five assists on the night with no Cougar dishing out more than one pass that directly contributed to a basket.

BYU trailed 35-29 at the half as CSU controlled the boards with 24 rebounds to BYU's 11. The Cougars changed their rebounding woes in the second half with 22 boards to CSU's 17 but the Rams were able to make the critical plays down the stretch. BYU finished the night shooting 37.7 percent from the floor and held CSU to nearly nine percentage points below its season average at 41.7 percent. CSU made 5-15 threes. The Rams had trouble pulling away from BYU in part because of a 55.6 percent shooting night at the line.

Sivesind led CSU with 18 points while Grady added 13 and David Fisher 10. Brian Greene pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.

BYU will now travel to Laramie to face the Wyoming Cowboys Monday at 7 p.m. while the Rams stay home to host Utah Monday.

Official Basketball Box Score -- GAME TOTALS -- FINAL STATISTICS
Brigham Young vs Colorado State University
1-20-01 7:07 p.m. at Fort Collins, Colo. (Moby Arena)
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VISITORS: Brigham Young 13-5 (2-1)
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
15 WESLEY, Mekeli...... f  4-10   0-3    4-6    1  6  7   4  12  1  1  1  1  31
25 NIELSEN, Eric....... f  2-4    0-0    0-0    1  2  3   4   4  1  1  1  0  28
02 HANSEN, Travis...... g  4-6    0-1    2-2    2  2  4   5  10  0  0  0  1  15
21 WHITING, Trent...... g  4-13   1-6    4-4    1  6  7   3  13  1  1  0  3  39
24 LYDAY, Terrell...... g  4-15   0-5    3-4    0  4  4   2  11  1  3  0  2  37
01 KNIGHT, Nate........    0-1    0-0    0-0    0  2  2   3   0  0  0  1  0  12
31 MONTAGUE, Matt......    1-2    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   1   2  0  0  0  0  17
34 CHRISMAN, Jacob.....    1-1    0-0    1-3    1  1  2   2   3  1  1  0  0   9
42 COOPER, Nathan......    0-1    0-1    0-0    0  1  1   2   0  0  0  0  0  12
   TEAM................                            2  2
   Totals..............   20-53   1-16  14-19   6 27 33  26  55  5  7  3  7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-23  .435   2nd Half: 10-30  .333   Game:  .377  DEADBALL
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  0-8   .000   2nd Half:  1-8   .125   Game:  .062  REBOUNDS
F Throw % 1st Half:  9-12  .750   2nd Half:  5-7   .714   Game:  .737     1
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HOME TEAM: Colorado State University 10-5 (1-1)
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
33 GREENE, Brian....... f  1-6    0-0    0-0    2  6  8   5   2  2  1  1  1  18
40 PATIK, Garrett...... f  3-6    2-3    1-3    1  5  6   1   9  1  0  1  0  27
44 FISHER, David....... c  4-8    0-0    2-8    1  5  6   1  10  1  2  0  0  31
10 PALMER, Aki......... g  2-5    1-3    0-2    0  2  2   2   5  1  1  0  2  35
32 SIVESIND, John...... g  5-9    2-5    6-6    0  0  0   1  18  3  4  0  0  34
01 SANDERS, Jonathan...    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0   4
03 GRADY, Ron..........    4-11   0-4    5-6    0  5  5   3  13  0  1  0  0  26
11 BIRLEY, Andy........    0-1    0-0    0-0    1  2  3   2   0  1  0  0  0  12
15 HARRIS, R'Cell......    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  0  0  0  0   0
25 BROWN, Matt.........    1-2    0-0    1-2    2  2  4   3   3  1  1  0  0  13
   TEAM................                         3  4  7
   Totals..............   20-48   5-15  15-27  10 31 41  19  60 10 10  2  3 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-26  .462   2nd Half:  8-22  .364   Game:  .417  DEADBALL
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  3-6   .500   2nd Half:  2-9   .222   Game:  .333  REBOUNDS
F Throw % 1st Half:  8-16  .500   2nd Half:  7-11  .636   Game:  .556     3
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Officials: Moose Stubing, Jim Stupin, Mike Giarratano
Technical fouls: Brigham Young-None. Colorado State University-None.
Attendance: 6254
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Brigham Young.................   29   26  -   55
Colorado State University.....   35   25  -   60