Wesley Scores Career-High 34 in Win over Wyoming

PROVO -- Led by Mekeli Wesley's career-high 34 points, BYU improved to 13-3 Thursday with an 87-78 win over Wyoming at the Marriott Center.

Scoring a season-best 16 first-half points, Wesley carried the Cougars to a slim 38-37 halftime advantage. He continued his strong play in the final 20 minutes, adding 18 second-half points to surpass his previous scoring high of 31 points set twice during his freshman season.

Wesley not only led the Cougars in scoring but also had team highs of eight rebounds and four assists. It was Wesley's sixth straight double-digit scoring night and his 14th in 16 games this year. Terrell Lyday added 22 points, 17 in the second half, while hitting 2-4 three pointers to tie a school record of 16 straight games with a made three-pointer. Andy Toolson also made a three in 16 straight game in 1990.

LaDarion Jones led Wyoming with 26 points, followed by Anthony Blakes with 19 and Josh Davis with 13. Wyoming shot 42.6 percent for the game while the Cougars made 49 percent of their attempts.

BYU improves to 2-1 in Mountain West Conference play while Wyoming falls to 1-2 (11-7 overall).

Coaches Quotes

Wyoming Coach Steve McClain:

"I thought our kids did a good job of keeping their composure. [BYU] hit one of those streaks where they started hitting their three-pointers...that's probably why they're one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country. I guess they left their free throw misses in the Utah game, because they were hitting all of them tonight."

"You have to give [Eric] Nielsen credit...he did a nice job defensively...if Nielsen doesn't defend like that, Josh [Davis] gets more points."

"We played a very confident BYU team tonight. You can see the fans coming back...I think I enjoyed that just about as much as anybody. We knew we were coming into a tough environment, and I think we did alright.."

"How much better are they? Much better, and Steve [Cleveland] deserves all the credit."

BYU Coach Steve Cleveland:

"I said this in the beginning...that we would have to win our home games, and I knew this was the kind of team that is really difficult. This wasn't one of our better defensive efforts. We didn't have an answer for their post people, and eventually we began covering down and we got a little bit better play."

"I could see at the walk through earlier today that we did not have the intensity. We got a stretch their in the second half, when we got stops, and Terrell [Lyday] and Mekeli [Wesley] came up with the baskets. The bottom line is, if those two men don't play well, we're going to have a hard time with anybody. So far, they have kind of risin to the occasion. They both played outstanding offensively. I also thought Silester [Rivers] did a really good job defensively in the second half. Matt [Montague] and Todd [Christensen] combined for a really good effort tonight. Matt was playing with good confidence. He has struggled the last couple of weeks, but he made some big baskets tonight."

"There is no question but what our game with Utah was felt tonight. It's like everything else in this game--you can talk about it until you're blue in the face. But every one of the players gave everything they had Saturday night, and it didn't matter who we played tonight, it wasn't going to be the emotional intense game we needed to have, and that was apparent in our defense."

Official Basketball Box Score -- GAME TOTALS -- FINAL STATISTICS
Wyoming vs BYU
1/20/00 7:35 at Provo, Utah
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VISITORS: Wyoming 11-7
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
00 JONES, LaDarion..... f 10-21   2-2    4-4    3  4  7   3  26  3  2  0  1  34
44 BAILEY, Marcus...... f  2-4    0-0    1-3    1  2  3   4   5  0  4  0  1  28
22 DAVIS, Josh......... c  5-9    0-0    3-4    3  5  8   4  13  0  0  0  1  25
05 BLAKES, Anthony..... g  7-15   1-4    4-4    3  7 10   1  19  2  2  0  2  38
10 McMILLIAN, Chris.... g  1-5    0-2    4-4    0  5  5   5   6  4  4  0  0  28
14 McFALL, Brett.......    1-3    1-2    0-0    0  1  1   4   3  2  4  0  1  15
33 LOSTETTER, Antone...    0-2    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   1   0  0  0  0  0   8
40 FRENCH, Justin......    3-4    0-0    0-1    0  1  1   2   6  0  1  0  0  12
52 MANN, Bradley.......    0-5    0-4    0-0    0  0  0   3   0  1  0  0  0  12
   TEAM................                         5  2  7
   Totals..............   29-68   4-14  16-20  15 28 43  27  78 12 17  0  6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-29  .448   2nd Half: 16-39  .410   Game:  .426  DEADBALL
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  2-5   .400   2nd Half:  2-9   .222   Game:  .286  REBOUNDS
F Throw % 1st Half:  9-12  .750   2nd Half:  7-8   .875   Game:  .800     2
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HOME TEAM: BYU 13-3
                          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 10-19   3-7   11-14   2  6  8   3  34  4  1  3  0  37
25 NIELSEN, Eric....... f  0-1    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   4   0  1  1  1  0  21
04 CHRISTENSEN, Todd... g  2-5    1-3    2-2    0  1  1   3   7  3  1  0  1  27
13 VRANES, Michael..... g  2-7    1-3    3-4    2  3  5   4   8  3  1  0  0  20
24 LYDAY, Terrell...... g  6-12   2-4    8-10   0  3  3   0  22  1  2  0  2  36
02 RIVERS, Silester....    3-4    0-0    2-4    0  3  3   4   8  0  2  1  0  19
05 ROBERTS, Marc.......    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  0  0  0  0   1
31 MONTAGUE, Matt......    3-3    0-0    1-3    0  4  4   0   7  3  3  0  1  23
42 COOPER, Nathan......    0-2    0-1    1-2    0  2  2   0   1  1  0  0  0  16
   TEAM................                         2  3  5
   Totals..............   26-53   7-18  28-39   6 26 32  19  87 16 11  5  4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-28  .464   2nd Half: 13-25  .520   Game:  .491  DEADBALL
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  3-9   .333   2nd Half:  4-9   .444   Game:  .389  REBOUNDS
F Throw % 1st Half:  9-15  .600   2nd Half: 19-24  .792   Game:  .718     4
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Officials: Scott Thornley, Dick Cartmell, Jim Danner
Technical fouls: Wyoming-McMILLIAN, Chris. BYU-None.
Attendance: 10347
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Wyoming.......................   37   41  -   78
BYU...........................   38   49  -   87