Cougars Keep It Close But Fall at No. 5 UCLA

LOS -- The BYU Cougars kept it close but faded at the end at No. 5 UCLA Wednesday night, losing 82-69 in their season-opener. After leading by as many as nine in the first half and hanging tight in the second half, BYU allowed the Bruins to end the game on an 18-7 run to seal the win.

"We executed our game plan really well and got ourselves in a position to win the game, but weren't able to get it done," said BYU head coach Dave Rose. "There were a lot of 50/50 plays, but UCLA was a little bit quicker in going and getting it done. I think we've got a lot of different pieces. We just need to get it going for a full 40 minutes."

Senior Keena Young led the Cougars with 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the field and 4-for-4 shooting from the free-throw line while also pacing BYU with four rebounds. Junior Sam Burgess tied his career high with nine points on 3-for-3 shooting from three-point range in his first action since 2004-05, while Mike Rose was also a perfect 3-for-3 from long range for nine points. Jimmy Balderson and Lee Cummard also each added nine as the Cougars shot .578 from the field, including .667 (10-of-15) from behind the arc.

"Sam, Mike and Austin all came in and hit some big shots for us," said Rose. "It's a good sign to get good play from our bench. Trent (Plaisted) is going to get double-teamed a lot, but as our shooters hit more shots, teams will have to pick their poison."

UCLA was led by sophomore Luc Richard Mbah a Moute with game highs of 24 points and 11 rebounds. The Bruins shot 50 percent from the field and outrebounded the Cougars 31-21, including a 14-3 advantage on the offensive glass.

The Cougars got off to a rocky start as they picked up three fouls in the first 1:36 of the game, including two on Cummard, which prompted Coach Rose to bring in Burgess. After UCLA jumped out to a 6-0 early lead, a layin from Young got BYU on the scoreboard at the 16:50 mark. But the Cougars continued to struggle early as the Bruins pulled down seven rebounds, including five on the offensive glass, while BYU committed six turnovers in the first five minutes of the game, resulting in a 10-2 UCLA lead.

However, after a BYU time-out, a dunk from Trent Plaisted sandwiched between back-to-back Bruin turnovers sparked a 12-2 Cougar run that saw BYU take its first lead of the game at 14-12 on back-to-back three-pointers by Burgess. UCLA tied the game on the next possession, but Austin Ainge came off the bench and buried another three-pointer to stretch the lead to 17-14.

UCLA regained the advantage at 18-17, but the three-pointer continued to fall for the Cougars as Rose entered the game and drained his first attempt and then Ainge and Rose each buried one to give BYU a 26-20 lead and force a UCLA time-out. The break didn't slow BYU down, however, as Rose came out of the time-out with yet another long-range bomb, the Cougars' seventh of the half, to extend the lead to 29-20.

After a 5-0 Bruin spurt cut the lead to four points at 29-25, the two teams traded buckets until a three-point play and a three-point make from Cummard on either side of a UCLA layin gave the Cougars a 39-31 lead. But BYU failed to score in the final 2:41 of the half, allowing the Bruins to cut the deficit to 39-36 at the break. BYU went 14-for-21 (.667) from the field, including 8-for-9 (.889) from three-point range, in the first half, marking the Cougars' best three-point shooting half since Jan. 15, 2002, when BYU made 3-for-3 in the second half against UNLV.

Young got the Cougars going in the second half much as he did in the first with a layin on BYU's first possession, but UCLA roared back with 10 straight points to take its first advantage since leading 12-11 at the 13:02 mark of the first half at 43-41. UCLA's Collison buried a three-pointer on the next Bruin possession, starting a flurry of three-point makes by both teams, but a BYU turnover on the fastbreak as the Cougars were about to tie the game preserved the two-point UCLA lead at 49-47, which the Bruins extended to 54-47.

Jimmy Balderson got on the scoreboard with a three-point play to cut the lead to 54-50 but was answered with a three-point make by the Bruins. However, a 6-0 run over the next minute of play, including four more points from Balderson, got BYU within one point at 59-58. After a pair of UCLA free throws, Vuk Ivanovic scored his first points in a Cougar uniform to again cut the lead to one with 8:15 left to play in the game.

But the Bruins kept their composure and put together a 10-2 run from there to take their largest lead of the game at 71-62 with just under three minutes to play. The UCLA pressure continued the rest of the way as the Bruins recorded the 82-69 win.

"BYU is going to do a lot of good things this year," said UCLA head coach Ben Howland. "This was a very difficult home opener. BYU is probably the toughest team any top-25 team in the country is playing in their home opener."

The Cougars will now return home to face Idaho State in the Marriott Center at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. BYU currently owns the nation's seventh-longest active home win streak at 14 games.

Official Basketball Box Score -- GAME TOTALS -- FINAL STATISTICS
Brigham Young vs UCLA
11/15/06 7:30 pm at Los Angeles, CA (Pauley Pavilion)
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VISITORS: Brigham Young 0-1
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
03 YOUNG, Keena........ f  6-8    0-0    4-4    0  4  4   3  16  2  3  0  0  34
44 PLAISTED, Trent..... c  3-7    0-0    1-4    1  3  4   4   7  0  3  0  0  25
01 BROADUS, Rashaun.... g  0-6    0-2    0-0    0  1  1   2   0  3  5  0  1  28
23 BALDERSON, Jimmy.... g  4-5    0-1    1-1    0  2  2   4   9  1  4  0  2  28
30 CUMMARD, Lee........ g  3-5    2-3    1-1    0  3  3   3   9  2  1  1  0  18
02 ROSE, Mike..........    3-3    3-3    0-0    0  0  0   1   9  0  2  0  0  15
10 IVANOVIC, Vuk.......    1-3    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   3   2  0  0  0  0  15
13 AINGE, Austin.......    2-4    2-3    0-0    0  1  1   1   6  5  3  0  0  12
15 MALAMAN, Fernando...    1-1    0-0    0-0    1  0  1   1   2  0  0  0  0   6
20 BURGESS, Sam........    3-3    3-3    0-0    0  2  2   0   9  3  1  0  0  18
24 MURDOCK, Ben........    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0   1
   TEAM................                         1  1  2             1
   Totals..............   26-45  10-15   7-10   3 18 21  22  69 16 23  1  3 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-21 66.7%   2nd Half: 12-24 50.0%   Game: 57.8%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  8-9  88.9%   2nd Half:  2-6  33.3%   Game: 66.7%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  3-3  100 %   2nd Half:  4-7  57.1%   Game: 70.0%   1,1
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HOME TEAM: UCLA 1-0
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
03 Shipp, Josh......... f  4-10   1-4    4-4    3  1  4   0  13  0  2  0  1  32
23 Mbah a Moute, Luc Ri f  7-10   0-0   10-13   5  6 11   1  24  2  3  2  3  34
14 Mata, Lorenzo....... c  2-6    0-0    0-2    1  3  4   4   4  0  2  1  0  21
02 Collison, Darren.... g  6-12   2-4    2-2    1  2  3   0  16 10  1  0  1  38
04 Afflalo, Arron...... g  3-9    1-4    2-4    1  1  2   2   9  4  2  0  2  34
00 Westbrook, Russell..    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  0  0  0  0   2
11 Wright, Ryan........    1-1    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   2   2  0  1  0  0   3
12 Aboya, Alfred.......    3-3    0-0    3-5    2  2  4   2   9  0  2  0  0  16
13 Keefe, James........    1-1    0-0    0-0    1  0  1   1   2  0  0  0  0   6
20 Roll, Michael.......    1-4    1-3    0-0    0  0  0   1   3  0  0  0  0  14
   TEAM................                            2  2
   Totals..............   28-56   5-15  21-30  14 17 31  14  82 16 13  3  7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 15-31 48.4%   2nd Half: 13-25 52.0%   Game: 50.0%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  1-8  12.5%   2nd Half:  4-7  57.1%   Game: 33.3%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  5-9  55.6%   2nd Half: 16-21 76.2%   Game: 70.0%   4,1
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Officials: Mark Reischling, Randy McCall, Bobby McRoy
Technical fouls: Brigham Young-None. UCLA-None.
Attendance: 9297
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Brigham Young.................   39   30  -   69
UCLA..........................   36   46  -   82
ID-451517
Points in the paint-BY 20,UCLA 36. Points off turnovers-BY 21,UCLA 35.
2nd chance points-BY 2,UCLA 14. Fast break points-BY 4,UCLA 15.
Bench points-BY 28,UCLA 16. Score tied-4 times. Lead changes-4 times.