Cougars find way to grit out league road victory

A little more than two hours later, just after the buzzer sounded in BYU's 55-52 victory over Utah, Cougar forward Lee Cummard chucked the game ball deep into the Ute student section.

Right back at ya.

The way BYU had been playing on the road lately, Cougar fans were probably cringing at tipoff, hands poised over the channel button on their remote controls. At the very least, if the game had gotten out of hand, they were hoping for a power outage like the one that hit north Orem on Tuesday night during BYU's poor performance at UNLV.

But something else happened. No, it wasn't magical -- no one would have called BYU's win on Saturday divine intervention. Instead, it was all about heart, and sweat, and guts, and snot, and floor burns, and eventually, one sweet defensive stand clinging to a one-point lead late in the game.

BYU fans should have known something was up when the Cougars shot 28 percent from the field in the first half -- and led 26-23.

"We feel like we're not one dimensional," said BYU senior guard Sam Burgess, who had 12 points and a clutch trey with 2:29 to go. "We came up with a great defensive game. We don't need to be blazing hot to win."

BYU would have settled for a warm campfire in its past two road losses: by 17 points at Wake Forest and by 29 points at UNLV. But in those games, when the Cougars didn't shoot well, they simply folded like a rotted lawn chair.

This time, Trent Plaisted and Jonathan Tavernari combined to shoot 2-for-17, but the BYU players reached deep down and kept competing. This 40 minutes of hard work against Utah is worth 10 home victories over the likes of Pepperdine or Hartford.

Here's the premise: It doesn't matter if you shoot like crap if you make the other team shoot like crap. BYU shot just 33 percent from the field (20-of-60) and 17 percent (3-of-17) from the 3-point line. But the home team shot just 38 percent (22-of-57) and 21 percent (3-of-14) from the 3-point arc.

It's a game only a coach would love, one like Craig Drury of Provo High. That's maybe why BYU freshman and Bulldog alum Chris Collinsworth, who scored six points and grabbed eight rebounds, had such a big smile on his face at the end of the game.

"We went and won because of rebounding and defense," Collinsworth said. "Coach Dru would have loved it."

So did BYU head coach Dave Rose, who was asked if he felt better now than he did 48 hours ago.

"I can't even explain it," Rose said.

One of the things that's hardest for a team to learn is how to win on the road. Last year's BYU team figured it out when it mattered -- during league play. You've got to defend the home court, too, and when you don't, it's mind-numbing. As the crowd of 14,224 filed out after the game, one Ute fan called out another's name. They faced each other and in unison, shook their heads.

Yup, that's how it feels to lose at home when you think you should have won.

Utah had chances late in the game after tying it a 50-all with 3:18 to play. But Burgess hit a huge 3-pointer and the Utes managed just one more basket the rest of the way.

And when the Cougars needed a defensive stop, they got it, forcing a rushed Tyler Kepkay leaner in the final seconds. Lee Cummard rebounded, was fouled, and even the Utah fans seemed to know Cummard was going to make both.

He did. Then he gave the Utah student section something to remember the Cougars by.

"They'd been getting on my teammates all game long," Cummard said. "I just wanted to give 'em back a little souvenir from the game."

BYU kept a little souvenir as well -- a huge victory that should pay off big time down the Mountain West Conference road.

• Daily Herald Sports Editor Darnell Dickson can be reached at 344-2555 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it