Cummard and Young Lift BYU Over CSU

PROVO -- The No. 21 BYU men's basketball team improved its winning streak to eight games by defeating Colorado State Wednesday night, 76-67, in the Marriott Center. Senior forward Keena Young continued his league MVP campaign as he scored 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting, and Lee Cummard put up 20 points going 10-for-10 from the free-throw line.

"I thought it was a good team win," said BYU head coach Dave Rose. "Well defended well and rebounded well and got a good win despite not shooting the ball well."

The Cougars showed the Rams early on how difficult it is to win in the Marriot Center as center Trent Plaisted connected on a three-point play and then put down a two-handed slam that got all 18,767 fans screaming. Plaisted finished the night with eight points and three boards.

After CSU center Jason Smith tied the game with an alley-oop dunk, BYU captain Austin Ainge answered with the Cougars' first three-pointer of the game and then two field goals to put the Cougars up 17-12 with 8:25 left in the half. Ainge tied his career high in assists with eight and contributed 11 points on the night.

As the Cougars took a nine-point lead on free throws by Cummard, the Rams opened up into a two-three zone to defend BYU's outside shooting attack and Young and Plaisted's inside game. Seeing the zone defense BYU went right at the Rams and connected on seven straight free throws, four from Cummard and three from guard Ben Murdock, to go up 27-20 with 3:37 left in the half.

Right when the Rams began to make a run at the Cougars' 27-24 lead, Cummard hit a fade-away jumper and Ainge finished on a transition layup to put BYU's lead back to seven. Young then got hot as he went to work on CSU scoring the last four points of the half and sending the Cougars into the locker room up 37-28.

"Keena knows how to attack bigger guys," said Coach Rose. "He is a hard worker and at times tonight he made some great moves."

CSU wished Young was done for night the way he ended the first half but he took his hot shooting right into the second half scoring nine of BYU's first 11 points and extending the Cougar lead to 48-35. Young took a short trip to the bench and then came back in and followed up his own miss to keep BYU up by 13.

Right when the Cougars thought the game was won at the five-minute mark, CSU opened up into a full-court press that frustrated BYU into two consecutive turnovers and seven straight points for the Rams. The Cougars found their lead reduced to seven until Cummard stole the ball in the open court and took it the distance for a crowd-raising two-handed throwdown.

"Lee gets himself into a position to make big plays," said Coach Rose. "He hit some big free throws in the second half for us."

CSU's Smith answered with a layup to silence the Marriot Center fans but Ainge kept pacing the Cougars to victory as he connected on two free throws the next time down. Jimmy Balderson then took the life out of the Rams and any sort of run they wanted to start as he took a charge.

The Rams weren't going to give the Cougars the easy victory as they tried to force BYU to win the game at the free-throw line down the stretch. BYU hit 77 percent of its free throws and eliminated any sort of comeback by CSU, making the game final at 76-67.

The Cougars will begin their last road trip of the year as they head down to San Diego on Saturday to face the Aztecs. The game will be at 4 p.m. MT and can be seen on CSTV.

CLICK HERE to view postgame notes and quotes.

Official Basketball Box Score -- GAME TOTALS -- FINAL STATISTICS
Colorado State Rams vs BYU Cougars
02/21/07 8:06 p.m. at Marriott Center, Provo, Utah
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VISITORS: Colorado State Rams 15-11, 5-9 MWC
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
05 SMITH, Tyler........ *  5-8    1-3    4-4    1  2  3   3  15  0  2  0  1  33
12 DENSON, Tim......... *  0-2    0-1    0-0    0  1  1   3   0  1  3  0  0  32
13 ROBINSON, Freddy.... *  0-1    0-1    0-0    0  0  0   2   0  0  0  0  0  10
14 SMITH, Jason........ *  8-13   0-0    4-4    2  9 11   5  20  2  4  2  0  32
33 GILLING, Stephan.... *  2-11   2-9    0-2    1  0  1   4   6  2  2  0  1  18
03 KILBY, Xavier.......    0-1    0-0    1-2    1  3  4   4   1  1  2  0  1  14
04 LEWIS, Cory.........    3-5    1-1    1-2    0  3  3   4   8  2  4  0  2  27
11 SURRATT, Jordan.....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  2  2   0   0  0  1  0  0   3
30 CREASON, Stuart.....    8-10   0-0    1-2    2  1  3   2  17  4  2  0  0  31
   TEAM................                            1  1
   Totals..............   26-51   4-15  11-16   7 22 29  27  67 12 20  2  5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-22 54.5%   2nd Half: 14-29 48.3%   Game: 51.0%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  1-3  33.3%   2nd Half:  3-12 25.0%   Game: 26.7%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  3-5  60.0%   2nd Half:  8-11 72.7%   Game: 68.8%    2
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HOME TEAM: BYU Cougars 21-6, 11-2 MWC
                          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 10-15   0-0    4-5    3  3  6   3  24  1  4  0  0  29
30 CUMMARD, Lee........ f  5-7    0-2   10-10   2  3  5   4  20  1  2  1  2  37
44 PLAISTED, Trent..... c  3-12   0-0    2-3    1  1  2   2   8  0  0  0  1  35
13 AINGE, Austin....... g  5-9    1-5    2-5    0  4  4   2  13  8  4  0  1  36
23 BALDERSON, Jimmy.... g  0-0    0-0    2-2    0  4  4   1   2  3  1  0  1  17
02 ROSE, Mike..........    0-2    0-2    0-0    0  1  1   2   0  0  0  0  0  13
20 BURGESS, Sam........    1-4    0-3    0-0    0  1  1   2   2  2  1  0  1  12
24 MURDOCK, Ben........    0-1    0-0    3-4    0  1  1   0   3  0  0  0  0   4
45 TAVERNARI, Jonathan.    1-6    1-5    1-2    1  2  3   1   4  0  2  0  0  17
   TEAM................                         4  1  5
   Totals..............   25-56   2-17  24-31  11 21 32  17  76 15 14  1  6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-32 40.6%   2nd Half: 12-24 50.0%   Game: 44.6%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  2-11 18.2%   2nd Half:  0-6   0.0%   Game: 11.8%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  9-12 75.0%   2nd Half: 15-19 78.9%   Game: 77.4%    5
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Officials: Verne Harris, Dick Cartmell, Dan Chrisman
Technical fouls: Colorado State Rams-None. BYU Cougars-None.
Attendance: 18767
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Colorado State Rams...........   28   39  -   67
BYU Cougars...................   37   39  -   76
BYU Ranked No. 21/22
Points in the paint-CS 36,BY 36. Points off turnovers-CS 10,BY 23.
2nd chance points-CS 10,BY 15. Fast break points-CS 4,BY 12.
Bench points-CS 26,BY 9. Score tied-1 time. Lead changes-0 times.