PROVO,Utah (Jan 11, 2005) -- It may have been a cold night in Provo, but inside the Marriott Center it was sizzling as the Cougars snowballed past Montana State-Billings 110-70, posting their highest point total since the 1995 season.
The Cougars hosted the Division II Yellow Jackets school for the first time in school history and quickly make short work of them. BYU was especially dominant inside the paint where the Cougars outscored the MSU-Billings 50-14.
"We know this weekend will be a different atmosphere and a different kind of competition," said BYU head coach Steve Cleveland. "We need a few of these games to settle the nerves of our guys."
Offensively the Cougars cruised as they tallied the most first half points in the Coach Cleveland era with 57, eclipsing the old mark of 56 set against Rice in 2002.
The Cougars opened up the game on a 5-0 run led by an Austin Ainge floater. But then BYU got sloppy, turning the ball over repeatedly and allowing the Yellow Jackets to battle back with a 6-0 run to take an early 6-5 lead.
But that would be the only lead MSU-Billings would see as Mike Rose sank a deep three and it was an offensive avalanche from there. A Chris Miles dunk ignited the crowd and helped extend the Cougar lead. BYU coasted into the locker room with a 27-point advantage at the half.
In the second half, it was more of the same for the blue and white. Austin Ainge threw an ally-oop pass to Mike Hall with eleven minutes remaining, giving the Cougars a 35-point lead from which Montana State was never able to recover, leading to the 40-point rout.
The Yellow Jackets and the Cougars combined to shoot 52 from three-point range and tie a Marriott Center record for combined three-pointers made with 23. MSU-Billings put up 36 shots from beyond the arc and hit 14 for a 38.9 percent efficiency while the Cougars posted a season-high 62.5 percent mark on 10-16 shooting from beyond the arc.
The game saw a series of firsts for the Cougars as Garner Meads returned to the line up for the first time since the Utah State game on Dec. 18. Meads hauled in a team-high 11 rebounds. Fans also saw shooting guard Sam Burgess have his longest stint at the point guard position while all thirteen players who suited up, including Brock Reichner and Josh Burgess, saw action. Six players scored in double figures for the first time since 1999 as Jared Jensen scored a team-high 16 points, Hall and Rose each contributed 14 and Ainge, Keena Young and Terry Nashif each added 10 points.
The Cougars move to 6-10 on the season with the win and will now head to Mountain West Conference rival Colorado State for a matchup on Saturday, January 15th at 1 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN Plus. BYU began MWC play with a 59-57 loss Saturday against San Diego State.
Official Basketball Box Score -- GAME TOTALS -- FINAL STATISTICS
Montana State-Billings vs Brigham Young
01/11/05 7:07PM at Marriott Center, Provo, Utah
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VISITORS: Montana State-Billings 8-5
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
01 HASSELL, Justin..... f 8-15 3-3 3-4 6 5 11 4 22 1 4 2 3 35
04 WALKER, Lucas....... f 2-10 0-0 1-2 1 3 4 5 5 0 2 1 1 18
21 WILEY, Jonathan..... f 1-2 1-1 0-0 1 1 2 4 3 4 4 1 1 32
05 WINDY BOY, Buddy.... g 5-14 5-14 0-0 1 4 5 0 15 1 3 1 1 37
23 MUNOZ, Cameron...... g 6-18 4-11 4-4 3 2 5 2 20 4 1 1 1 38
02 HUGHES, Carlin...... 1-8 1-6 2-2 0 0 0 3 5 4 4 0 0 21
10 ARNOLD, Drew........ 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 3 3 2 0 0 3 0 1 11
32 JAMISON, Jay........ 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
33 SAMUELSON, Cody..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 3 0 3 3 0 0 2 0 0 6
TEAM................ 3 3 6
Totals.............. 23-70 14-36 10-12 18 21 39 23 70 14 23 6 8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-36 30.6% 2nd Half: 12-34 35.3% Game: 32.9% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 5-14 35.7% 2nd Half: 9-22 40.9% Game: 38.9% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 3-4 75.0% 2nd Half: 7-8 87.5% Game: 83.3% 0
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HOME TEAM: Brigham Young 6-10
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
01 HALL, Mike.......... f 6-10 0-2 2-2 3 2 5 0 14 1 3 0 0 24
41 MEADS, Garner....... f 3-7 0-0 1-2 4 7 11 1 7 1 1 0 0 21
52 JENSEN, Jared....... c 6-9 0-0 4-4 3 4 7 3 16 0 1 0 1 17
02 ROSE, Mike.......... g 5-10 4-7 0-0 0 2 2 1 14 3 0 1 1 22
13 AINGE, Austin....... g 3-5 2-3 2-2 0 2 2 3 10 8 2 0 0 23
03 YOUNG, Keena........ 3-6 0-0 4-8 2 4 6 1 10 0 1 2 2 20
04 BURGESS, Joshua..... 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 6
10 NASHIF, Terry....... 4-5 2-2 0-0 0 2 2 0 10 2 1 0 3 11
12 REICHNER, Brock..... 2-3 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 2 4 0 0 0 0 6
20 BURGESS, Sam........ 1-4 1-1 3-4 1 2 3 4 6 4 2 0 3 18
23 BALDERSON, Jimmy.... 3-3 0-0 3-6 0 3 3 0 9 2 2 0 1 16
54 MILES, Chris........ 3-10 0-0 1-2 2 1 3 1 7 2 0 1 1 16
TEAM................ 1 1
Totals.............. 40-73 10-16 20-30 16 31 47 16 110 23 13 4 12 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 19-31 61.3% 2nd Half: 21-42 50.0% Game: 54.8% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 6-8 75.0% 2nd Half: 4-8 50.0% Game: 62.5% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 13-20 65.0% 2nd Half: 7-10 70.0% Game: 66.7% 6
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Officials: Jim Danner, Ronnie Hernandez, Kenneth Wilson
Technical fouls: Montana State-Billings-HASSELL, Justin. Brigham Young-None.
Attendance: 9506
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Montana State-Billings........ 30 40 - 70
Brigham Young................. 57 53 - 110
Points in the paint-MSUB 14,BY 50. Points off turnovers-MSUB 8,BY 23.
2nd chance points-MSUB 13,BY 15. Fast break points-MSUB 2,BY 12.
Bench points-MSUB 5,BY 49. Score tied-0 times. Lead changes-2 times.