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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Keena Young scored a career high 20 points and pulled down seven rebounds to lead Brigham Young to a 100-90 victory over Mountain West Conference leader San Diego State Wednesday night.
BYU (17-7, 9-4 Mountain West) outscored SDSU 19-6 during a key run late in the second half to take an 82-70 lead and then hit its free throws down the stretch to hang on for the win.
Fernando Malaman, who scored eight points during the run, hit one of two free throws to begin the run and tie the game at 64-64 with 10:20 remaining. Trent Plaisted then scored on a dunk off a Jackson Emery assist to give the Cougars the lead for good.
Brandon Heath's 3-pointer with 1:30 remaining pulled San Diego State (18-8, 11-3) to within four at 90-86, but Young followed with a dunk and the Cougars were 8-of-8 from the free throw line in the final 53 seconds to pull away and clinch the victory.
The Cougars were hot from the field, shooting 59 percent for the game and 76 percent in the second half, including 8-of-16 from beyond the 3-point arc.
In the first half, BYU overcame a 19-21 deficit with a 16-4 run led by Jimmy Balderson's eight points. The Aztecs responded and pulled to within three at 41-38 on Mohamed Abukar's 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer.
Heath, who leads the Aztecs with 18.3 points per game, didn't score until the 19:20 mark in the second half. He finished with 14 points and five assists. Abukar led SDSU with 20 points and Richie Williams had 19. Marcus Slaughter scored 15 points and had a game-high 12 rebounds.
Balderson came off the bench to score 17 points for the Cougars and Austin Ainge had 16.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
