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BEAUMONT, Texas (Dec. 13, 2006) - Keena Young scored 19 points in his hometown return, but BYU was unable to come away with the win as Lamar pulled away late at the free-throw line in overtime to win 86-77 Wednesday at the Montagne Center.
Young was 6-for-13 from the floor and 7-of-8 from the line to total his team-leading 19 points. Playing in his hometown for the first time since his high school days at Ozen High, the 6-foot-6 senior forward also added five rebounds and equaled a season-best three assists in front of a large contingent of Cougar fans and hometown followers in Beaumont.
Jimmy Balderson and Mike Rose added 15 and 14 points, respectively, off the bench to join Young in double figures. Fernando Malaman pulled down a career-best 10 rebounds and Balderson tied his career-high eight rebounds, but the Cougars were outrebounded 46-43 on the strength of a 16-rebound effort from Lamar's James Davis, a 7-foot-1, 335-pounder who also scored a game-high 20 points to pace the Cardinals.
"When you play a talented team on their home floor and you let them get a big lead, you give them a lot of momentum and make it hard to get back in it," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "We let them get the ball in the places where they wanted to get the ball and then we didn't get to their shooters fast enough and they hit some open looks on the perimeter. We fought a lot better in the second half. We came out and made a couple shots early, made a couple steals and made some plays on the defensive end."
The Cougars got down early as the Cardinals scored the first six points of the game to force a Rose timeout with just over a minute played in the contest. Out of the timeout, Young quickly got BYU on the scoreboard, drawing a foul and converting both free throw attempts. Young went on to score BYU's first six points with two more free throws and a jumper to keep BYU within two points at 8-6 at the 18:36 mark.
Thanks to inside play of Davis and Lawrence Nwevo, Lamar was able push the lead to a 19-10 advantage before BYU got back-to-back treys from reserves Ben Murdock and Mike Rose to cut the deficit to three at 19-16. Murdock, Rose and Gavin MacGregor all saw early minutes in the half for BYU as the Cougars looked for a spark off the bench.
Unfortunately for BYU, it was the Cardinals who started heating up as they found their range from distance to ignite a commanding 15-1 run. Lamar hit back-to-back threes, its fourth and fifth of triples of the game, as part of the run to double the Cougars on the scoreboard for a 34-17 lead with 7:12 to go in the half.
Balderson and Young scored all but two of BYU's points the rest of the half to reduce the deficit to 14 at 44-30 going into the locker room. Young finished the half with a team-high 10 points while Balderson added nine points off the bench. Twelve BYU players saw action in the first 20 minutes as only freshman Jonathan Tavernari didn't get in the game.
BYU opened the second half on fire, going on a 10-1 run to reduce the lead to five at 45-40 at the 16:27 mark. BYU used turnovers to create buckets for Lee Cummard and Balderson, highlighted by Balderson throwing one down for his first dunk of the year off an assist from Rashaun Broadus. After a Davis free throw, Trent Plaisted followed with his first bucket of the game and then Balderson and Plaisted added encore scores to finish the run.
Despite back-to-back Lamar baskets, BYU kept the pressure on as Malaman hit his first three of the year, Balderson scored his 15th point of the game and Mike Rose found his rhythm with consecutive triples as the Cougars reduced the lead to one at 53-52 with 12 minutes still remaining.
BYU finally was able to pull even as Plaisted was fouled on a spectacular one-handed dunk and converted at the line to tie the score at 57-57 at the 9:24 mark. The Cougar fans in attendance made some noise when Rose hit his fourth trey of the game for the next score and BYU's first lead of the contest at 60-57.
"The difference (during the second half run) was we started guarding them," Balderson said. "We got some steals and made some layups. We started hitting open shots."
The teams stayed close the rest of the way with six lead changes and eight ties resulting from the back-and-forth battle. Young gave BYU a 72-71 lead with his 15th point of the game with 1:20 to go in regulation but Davis followed by hitting one of two at the line with 60 seconds remaining to even the tally. After both teams failed to convert, BYU obtained the final possession with 5.7 seconds on the clock, but Malaman's three attempt found the back of the iron to send the game to an extra period.
The game was tied at 74 and 76 in overtime until the Cardinals found their long-range game again as Matthew Barrow converted from behind the arc. After Lee Cummard made one of two at the line, Darren Hopkins drilled Lamar's ninth trey to make it a five-point game at 82-77. The Cardinals obtained the final margin at the free throw line as BYU was forced to foul after misses.
The Cougars are now 2-1 in overtime games this year and had a streak of five straight overtime wins dating back to the 2002-03 season come to an end. Overall, BYU is now 5-4 on the year while Lamar improves to 4-6.
The Cougars return to Provo to host in-state foe Utah State Saturday at 4 p.m. MT in the Marriott Center.
