The best moment of Tuesday's BYU men's basketball game came from the opposition, when an senior named Tyler Blok stole the show by refusing to cave in to the BYU's student section's mockery.

In eight late minutes, Blok acquired five fouls. It's the Cougar crowd's habit to chant "left, right" on footsteps until a loud "sit down" comes at the end.

Blok never gave the small Marriott Center attendance the satisfaction in the final minute, much as Western Oregon refused to kowtow at every BYU whim.

The Cougars still won, 85-64, although it was a relatively flat showing after Saturday's tough loss to top 5-ranked Wake Forest that had a capacity crowd.

About 14,000 fewer fans (8,885) braved the snow and late weeknight start for this one against a Division II team.

"All in all, I thought we got a lot of good looks out of it," BYU head coach Dave Rose said. "But I would have preferred a more inspired, consistent effort."

The reserves came out strong, however, gaining a 34-7 scoring margin. Archie Rose had a career-high 11 points and Lamont Morgan had a personal-best 12.

Jonathan Tavernari led the 12-2 Cougars with a game-high 22 points, perhaps none more important this his first free throw with 4:25 elapsed in the first half.

That gave BYU its first point after allowing the first 11, while missing the first nine shots.

The earth started spinning correctly on the axis again, as Tavernari provided a slam dunk and some other points that stifled the visitors.

"You know that's not going to last," WOU coach (and BYU alum) Craig Stanger said of the early margin. "But it's always fun when you're in a hostile environment to shut the crowd off early."

BYU's students, so vivacious Saturday, were stretching for reasons to stay pumped for the Wolves. Besides going after Blok, even though his team never trailed by more than 21, a few in the bleachers at the end tried lamely to get a "go start the bus" cheer going.

How high school.

WOU (6-5) hit open shots early and feasted on a BYU defense that struggled at times to match up, and also failed to succeed at some new wrinkles the coaching staff was trying to employ. It was a far cry from when the Wolves lost by 62 at the MC two years ago.

Morgan's layup with 8:42 left in the first half gave BYU its first lead, 27-25, and that held up as the Cougars scored the next eight points.

There were some nice baskets strung together although the atmosphere never got raucous for the Cougars, who had their final tune-up before starting the 16-game Mountain West Conference slate Saturday at Colorado State.

But BYU was able to try some new things. Tavernari, at 6-foot-6, even saw some time at center (don't expect that much against MWC foes).

Archie Rose, with a damaged shooting hand (thumb), made a 3-pointer, hit all six free throws and saw an abnormally high 17 minutes.

Charles Abouo, a freshman, had his first college dunk midway through the first half.

Noah Hartscock, a freshman whose versatility is there but not the playing time or confidence right now, had 17 minutes and seven points and four rebounds -- both career bests.

"There was a lot of good that came out of this game for us," coach Rose said. "This game got us in the right mindset for conference play."

Jimmer Fredette added 13 points for BYU and Lee Cummard had 12.

One concern of Rose's is how his team's effort has appeared to adjust according to score -- a no-no in his book. He's expressed wariness that the better his team shoots, the better it focuses on defense.

That trait showed itself in the sluggish start, as BYU missed shots then gave up some easy ones.

So there are a couple of concerns: First, will BYU play with the same effort against (for example) Utah or UNLV as it does against a lower-tier MWC team?

And how will the Cougars handle quick turnarounds?

In the league schedule, there are five occasions in which they'll play Saturday and again Tuesday. The school does not practice on Sunday, leaving just one day of practice.