Cougars Fall 64-63 at South Alabama

MOBILE -- BYU's five-game win streak came to a halt Tuesday when the Cougars fell to South Alabama, 64-63, in the first of three straight road games.

A South Alabama comeback in the final eight minutes proved to be just enough to hand the Cougars their second loss of the season. After Mekeli Wesley hit a leaning three-pointer to give the Cougars the lead at 63-62 with just under 30 seconds remaining, the Jaguars' Brett Gravitt responded with a 12-foot runner to give South Alabama the advantage. Wesley got off a final attempt but neither it nor tip attempts by Michael Vranes and Terrell Lyday would go down for the Cougars.

"We did all the things we needed to do to win this game until about the final two minutes," BYU coach Steve Cleveland said. "We uncharacteristically missed a some free throws and made a couple turnovers and they made a couple runners and some tough shots. We got a good shot off and a couple tips but they didn't go down. It's a game that could have gone either way and unfortunately it went against us."

The Cougars, who fall to 7-2 overall and 1-2 on the road, trailed by three at the half, 33-30, but out scored the Jaguars 22-11 over the first 12 minutes of the second half to take a 52-42 lead with 8:14 remaining. With the Jaguars 6-10 center Virgil Stanescu committing his fifth foul with 7:35 to go in the game, BYU appeared on its way to its sixth straight win. But Gravitt and Ravonte Dantzler, who scored 22 of South Alabama's 31 second half points, led a Jaguar comeback that was culminated by Gravitt's 10th point of the game -- all in the second half.

South Alabama improves to 3-5 on the year and 2-3 at home. The Jaguars were led by Dantzler at 17, followed by Gravitt and Stanescu with 10. They shot 49 percent for the game compared to 43 percent by BYU.

Wesley lead the Cougars with 20 points followed by Terrell Lyday with 15. Eric Nielsen and Silester Rivers added eight and Nathan Cooper and Michael Vranes six for BYU. Cooper also had a career-high seven assists to lead the Cougars. Wesley and Matt Montague shared team-high honors with five rebounds.

BYU will play another Sun Belt Conference team Thursday when it faces Florida International in Miami.

Official Basketball Box Score -- GAME TOTALS -- FINAL STATISTICS
Brigham Young vs South Alabama
12-21-99 at Mitchell Center (Mobile, Ala.)
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VISITORS: Brigham Young 3-5
                          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  7-17   2-4    4-6    1  4  5   4  20  2  1  0  0  39
25 NIELSEN, Eric....... f  3-5    0-0    2-2    1  2  3   4   8  1  1  2  2  19
13 VRANES, Michael..... g  2-6    2-4    0-0    0  1  1   0   6  0  2  0  1  30
24 LYDAY, Terrell...... g  5-10   4-4    1-2    0  3  3   4  15  1  5  0  2  25
31 MONTAGUE, Matt...... g  0-1    0-0    0-0    1  4  5   0   0  4  3  0  1  34
2  RIVERS, Silester....    3-6    0-0    2-3    1  1  2   3   8  0  2  1  1  12
4  CHRISTENSEN, Todd...    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  3  0  0  0  12
42 COOPER, Nathan......    2-6    0-1    2-2    2  1  3   1   6  7  1  0  0  29
   TEAM................                         3  1  4
   Totals..............   22-51   8-13  11-15   9 17 26  17  63 18 15  3  7 200
TOTAL FG%:  22-51  .431             DEADBALL
3-Pt. FG%:   8-13  .615             REBOUNDS
F Throw %:  11-15  .733                2
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HOME TEAM: South Alabama 7-2
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
32 DUBBS, Dusty........ f  2-6    1-3    0-0    1  1  2   2   5  2  1  0  0  31
34 BOLLMAN, Michael.... f  4-6    0-0    0-0    0  5  5   1   8  0  0  0  2  20
55 STANESCU, Virgil.... c  1-3    0-0    8-8    2  4  6   5  10  3  4  2  1  20
11 WILLIAMS, Demetrice. g  3-9    0-1    0-0    0  1  1   0   6  5  2  0  1  38
22 DANTZLER, Ravonte... g  8-13   1-5    0-0    1  2  3   0  17  0  2  0  1  32
14 BECK, Ericson.......    0-1    0-0    2-4    0  0  0   2   2  1  3  0  0   9
33 GRAVITT, Brett......    4-5    1-1    1-1    0  1  1   0  10  1  2  0  2  18
4  STEWART, Michael....    0-1    0-0    2-3    1  2  3   3   2  1  1  0  2  12
40 YORK, Reggie........    2-5    0-0    0-0    3  4  7   2   4  0  1  1  1  20
   TEAM................                         2  2  4
   Totals..............   24-49   3-10  13-16  10 22 32  15  64 13 16  3 10 200
TOTAL FG%:  24-49  .490           DEADBALL
3-Pt. FG%:   3-10  .300           REBOUNDS
F Throw %:  13-16  .812              1
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Officials: Mark Whitehead, Hal Lusk, Terry Moore
Technical fouls: Brigham Young-None. South Alabama-None.
Attendance: 1785
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Brigham Young.................   30   33  -   63
South Alabama.................   33   31  -   64