BYU Opens Exhibition Play Friday

PROVO -- The BYU men's basketball team opens exhibition play Friday at 7 p.m. when the Cougars host Laval University in the Marriott Center.

"We're excited for the chance to play someone other than our own team," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "Our players have been getting after each other in practice, and now it's time to see if we can put it together in a game situation."

From Quebec City, Quebec, in Canada, Laval University is off to a 4-5 start to its season. Laval is led by Canadian National Team member Jean-Philippe Morin, who has season highs of 38 points and 20 rebounds while averaging 23.4 points and 8.7 rebounds per game overall. In addition to playing BYU, Laval will face Weber State on Thursday and Utah State on Saturday. The Rouge et Or (Red and Gold) have gone 2-4 against NCAA competition in the past three seasons under head coach Jacques Paiement.

KSL Newsradio will stream the game live online at KSL.com via the KSL X-Stream.

Greg Wrubell will call the play-by-play action with former Cougar player and assistant coach Andy Toolson providing game analysis.

2007 Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year Jonathan Tavernari led the BYU White team to a 77-64 victory in last week's Cougar Tipoff with a game-high 27 points and 12 rebounds. Trent Plaisted scored 19 and Lee Cummard added 17 to lead the Blue team.

Tickets are available at the Marriott Center Ticket Office (1-800-322-BYU1 or 422-BYU1) or online at BYUTickets.com.