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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- John Beck passed for 240 yards and three touchdowns and Curtis Brown ran for 125 yards to lead Brigham Young past Tulsa 49-24 Saturday in a game that was delayed for nearly an hour because of lightning.
Fui Vakapuna returned after serving a two-year church mission and ran for two touchdowns and 96 yards for the Cougars (1-1), who avoided an 0-2 start for the first time in 11 years.
BYU ran for 227 yards -- 203 more than in the season-opening loss at Arizona -- as Brown and Vakapuna ran right through some shaky tackling by Tulsa (1-1).
The Golden Hurricane also hurt themselves by setting up the Cougars with great field position through penalties and turnovers.
Paul Smith completed 19 of 32 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown to lead Tulsa, which struggled to run the ball all day.
The Golden Hurricane finished with 31 carries for 82 yards and just 303 total yards.
Steady rain began falling at the beginning of the fourth quarter, then the lightning got close enough that the officials sent both teams to the locker room with 6 minutes remaining. About 45 minutes later, the teams were summoned to warm up and finish the game.
The Cougars and Golden Hurricane traded touchdowns in that final stretch.
Tulsa took a 10-7 lead after a blocked punt led to a field goal midway through the second quarter, then BYU scored touchdowns on its next three possessions.
The Cougars scored twice in the final few minutes of the second quarter to take a 21-17 lead at halftime, then came out again with another quick score when Brown turned a short pass from Beck into a 62-yard touchdown play.
Tulsa had Brown stopped twice on the play, but he broke tackles on the way to the end zone.
Zac Collie caught a touchdown pass and blocked a punt on the first possession of the game, setting up BYU for a quick 45-yard drive that ended with Vakapuna scoring on a 7-yard run.
It was the first touchdown since Oct. 30, 2003 for Vakapuna, who added an 11-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.
Manase Tonga scored on a 6-yard run for his first career touchdown, which put BYU ahead to stay at 14-10 late in the second quarter.
Smith tied the game at 7-all with a 6-yard pass to Kyle Grooms.
Then after a blocked punt set up the Golden Hurricane at the BYU 15, Jarrod Tracy gave Tulsa a brief lead with a 25-yard field goal.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
