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PROVO, Utah (Nov. 8, 2006) - BYU played its final exhibition game Wednesday defeating the University of Montevallo, 92-63. Cougar center Trent Plaisted finished the night with 20 points on 8-for-9 shooting while grabbing nine rebounds, spoiling the Falcons' hopes of upsetting the Cougars.
"The biggest impression for me was we got to guard something different than we see in practice everyday," said BYU head coach Dave Rose. "That was evident from all the fouls we got, but it was good for us." The Cougars opened the game on a 14-4 run with Plaisted connecting on his first four shots. Montevallo fought back and tied the game 28-28 at the six-minute mark.
"Trent Plaistead is really good," said Montevallo head coach Danny Young. "He'll be in the NBA someday."
BYU got a lift from its bench with five minutes left in the half when freshman guard Jonathan Tavernari hit a three to put BYU up 33-28. On the next defensive possession Tavernari grabbed the rebound and pushed it up the floor to senior captain Jimmy Balderson who hit a floating jumper to extend BYU's lead to 35-28. The Cougars finished the half with senior guard Rashaun Broadus hitting a mid-range jumpshot as time expired to put BYU up 45-35.
"BYU is well coached," said coach Young. "They are very physical and very deep."
The Cougars maintained their 10-point advantage until junior Sam Burgess connected from long-range at the 14-minute mark in the second half followed by back-to-back three-pointers from Broadus to extend the Cougar lead to 18 points at 66-48.
Tavernari's hot hand continued in the second half as he nailed back-to-back three pointers and gave BYU its biggest lead to that point at 77-56. Coach Rose then got good minutes out of his reserves as they held the Falcons to only seven points in the final seven minutes.
"There are a lot of guys that can contribute," said Coach Rose. "We got some good chemistry from a few different lineup."
The Cougars had the advantage down low as they scored 33 points in the paint and had six blocks to the Falcons' 12 and 1, respectively.
Before BYU officially kicks off the season, the Cougars will host their annual Cougar Tipoff on Friday night at 6 p.m. BYU will begin its season next week heading to Los Angeles to take on last year's NCAA runner-up UCLA on Wednesday night.
