PROVO -- BYU looked to the leadership of senior Travis Hansen and junior Mark Bigelow in the second half to win its 40th straight game at home, beating UC Santa Barbara 69-56 Saturday night at the Marriott Center in front of 12,259 fans.
The Cougars (8-1) struggled early and trailed the Gauchos (3-5) most of the first half. A Ricky Bower three-point bucket at the halftime buzzer was one of only few bright spots for BYU in the first 20 minutes. The trey gave the Cougars a two-point lead going into the locker room.
Poor shooting and fouls plagued the first half. At one point, both teams were a combined 6-of-28 (21.1 percent) from the floor. Both squads got off to slow starts as only a total of 10 points were scored during the first 10 minutes of the game.
The Cougars heated up in the second half sparking an 11-0 run that gave them the lead at 48-40 with 11:29 to play. Bigelow hit two bombs from behind the arc and Terry Nashif added an old-fashioned three-point play, with a lay-up and a free throw, during the stretch.
UCSB tried to make a run with just under five minutes left, cutting the lead to seven, until Hansen pulled down one of few offensive rebounds for BYU and put it back giving the Cougars a 60-51 lead which they would not give up.
"This team is a blue-collar group. It hasn't always been pretty, but they are competing and that's what I like about this team," said BYU head coach Steve Cleveland.
Hansen led all scorers with 19 points. He has not lost a game at the Marriott Center during his career as a Cougar dating back two-and-a-half seasons.
"We just need to keep playing hard as a team. You don't win 40 games in a row at home unless you play team basketball," Hansen said.
Bigelow scored 11 points including three treys. He is one three-pointer shy of passing Terrell Lyday for second place all-time at BYU in three point baskets made. The top-spot is held by Cougar assistant coach Andy Toolson.
Bower and Nashif gave the Cougars good minutes off the bench by attacking the Gauchos' half-court pressure and dishing out the ball. The Cougars spread the ball around and passed well for easy buckets. Out of 20 team field goals for BYU 14 of those came off an assist.
"The turnovers in the second half really killed us," said UCSB head coach Bob Williams. "You have to give them [BYU] credit--they did a nice job of getting out on us and pressuring us."
UCSB was in led in scoring by Branduinn Fullove with 17 points. Nick Jones added 15.
BYU held the Gauchos to their worst shooting percentage of the season at 36.5 percent. The Cougars ended the contest shooting 47.6 percent from the field.
The Cougars play at the University of San Francisco Monday night at 7 p.m. MST. The game will be broadcast on radio only by KSL Newsradio 1160 AM.
Official Basketball Box Score -- GAME TOTALS -- FINAL STATISTICS
UC Santa Barbara vs BRIGHAM YOUNG Cougars
12/21/02 5:06 PM at Brigham Young University
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VISITORS: UC Santa Barbara 3-5
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
30 HULL, Mark.......... f 2-8 0-3 0-0 1 2 3 2 4 2 5 0 0 34
33 FULLOVE, Branduinn.. f 6-9 2-3 3-4 0 3 3 2 17 0 3 0 0 27
50 WHITEHEAD, Bryan.... f 1-2 0-0 1-2 2 1 3 3 3 1 2 0 0 19
03 JONES, Nick......... g 3-14 2-9 7-9 2 5 7 0 15 1 0 0 1 28
05 ATAKO, Jacoby....... g 2-5 1-2 0-0 0 1 1 2 5 2 1 0 1 25
01 BROWN, Cecil........ 2-5 1-3 0-0 0 1 1 5 5 0 2 0 0 16
02 DAVIS, Josh......... 1-2 0-0 0-0 5 1 6 3 2 1 1 0 0 9
15 OLIVER, Chrismen.... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 11
32 COOK, Casey......... 1-4 0-1 0-1 1 3 4 4 2 1 1 0 2 20
35 WARD, B.J........... 1-2 0-1 1-1 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 8
51 RAINEY, Scott....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3
TEAM................ 2 2
Totals.............. 19-52 6-23 12-17 11 20 31 24 56 8 17 0 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-27 29.6% 2nd Half: 11-25 44.0% Game: 36.5% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-13 30.8% 2nd Half: 2-10 20.0% Game: 26.1% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 6-9 66.7% 2nd Half: 6-8 75.0% Game: 70.6% 2
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HOME TEAM: BRIGHAM YOUNG Cougars 8-1
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
03 BIGELOW, Mark....... f 4-10 3-7 0-0 0 3 3 4 11 0 2 1 0 26
52 JENSEN, Jared....... f 3-4 0-0 3-4 2 3 5 3 9 0 1 2 0 32
55 ARAUJO, Rafael...... c 1-2 0-0 4-4 0 5 5 4 6 0 3 0 0 18
02 HANSEN, Travis...... g 4-9 1-3 10-12 2 5 7 4 19 5 3 0 1 34
24 WOODBERRY, Kevin.... g 0-5 0-5 2-2 0 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 22
04 LEMES, Luiz......... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
05 SHOFF, Jake......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 3 0 0 1 0 0 7
10 NASHIF, Terry....... 3-4 1-2 2-3 0 2 2 1 9 3 1 0 1 17
14 BOWER, Ricky........ 3-5 1-3 2-2 0 1 1 0 9 4 1 1 1 26
15 ALLEN, John......... 2-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 4 1 0 0 0 9
40 HOWARD, Dan......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6
TEAM................ 2 2
Totals.............. 20-42 6-20 23-27 4 25 29 21 69 14 13 5 3 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 9-22 40.9% 2nd Half: 11-20 55.0% Game: 47.6% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-12 33.3% 2nd Half: 2-8 25.0% Game: 30.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 6-6 100 % 2nd Half: 17-21 81.0% Game: 85.2% 2
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Officials: Lonnie Dixon, Shawn Lehigh, Verne Harris
Technical fouls: UC Santa Barbara-None. BRIGHAM YOUNG Cougars-None.
Attendance: 12259
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
UC Santa Barbara.............. 26 30 - 56
BRIGHAM YOUNG Cougars......... 28 41 - 69
Points in the paint-UCSB 12,BY 14. Points off turnovers-UCSB 10,BY 19.
2nd chance points-UCSB 9,BY 1. Fast break points-UCSB 4,BY 7.
Bench points-UCSB 12,BY 22. Score tied-4 times. Lead changes-11 times.