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PROVO — A week of speculation ended with BYU selected to the NCAA tournament as the 10 seed in the West Region to play No. 7 seed Oregon (23-9) on Thursday at 1:15 p.m. MDT in Milwaukee, Wis.
The victor will advance to play either No. 2 seed Wisconsin or No. 15 seed American. The Ducks defeated the Cougars 100-96 in overtime Dec. 12.
Concerns about BYU's potential to make it into the field increased when Kyle Collinsworth, who leads the Cougars in rebounds and assists and is second in scoring, went down with a season-ending ACL injury in the West Coast Conference championship game loss, 75-64, to Gonzaga.
But the selection committee apparently valued the difficulty of BYU's 17th ranked strength of schedule, which Oregon and the likes of Big 12 tournament champion Iowa State — not to mention Midwest Region No. 1 seed Wichita State — significantly aided. BYU was reportedly rated 39th overall by the selection committee.
Tyler Haws led all scorers with 32 points in the Eugene, Ore., contest and Collinsworth and Matt Carlino each had 15. Jason Calliste finished with 31 points to pace the Ducks, while Joseph Young added 25.
The Cougars held a seven-point lead with less than 4 minutes remaining, but an 8-1 Oregon run tied the game, 84-84.
Eric Mika's fifth foul sent Elgin Cook to the line for two free throws with 1.8 seconds left and disqualified the remainder of the BYU starting frontcourt, as Nate Austin had fouled out just 1:10 earlier. Cook missed both to send the game to overtime.
Oregon came out on top after five lead changes and four ties in the extra period, outscoring BYU 6-2 over the final 1:24.
