BYU Downs Big Sky Champion Weber State

PROVO -- Behind another dominating performance from senior center Rafael Araujo and his game-high 23 points, BYU defeated the Weber State Wildcats 86-65 Saturday night in the Mariott Center. The Cougars improve to 7-1, while the Wildcats drop to 5-4.

Araujo also pulled down a game-high seven rebounds and has now led the Cougars in points and rebounds in six consecutive games. He also shot 11-for-14 from the floor.

The Cougars shot a season-high tying 58.2 percent of their shots, in avenging a loss to the Wildcats last season.

"I thought that when the game was on the line defensively, our defense was as good as it's been," said BYU coach Steve Cleveland. "I thought we took them out of what they wanted to do, but obviously it was a big loss not having Ocokoljic. We knew that, but you still have to play the game. We felt like we needed to stay with our game plan, but it did get sloppy at the end."

The Wildcats struck first in the game with a quick field goal to take a 2-0 lead, but it would prove to be WSU's only lead of the contest as BYU answered with an 11-0 run to take a commanding 11-2 lead. Hall spurred the run with a three-point play and a 3-pointer, enroute to a career-high 22 points.

WSU came out a tentative team in the first half, as BYU continued to widen its lead. Junior guard Kevin Woodberry continued the Cougars' surge with a trey at the 13:18 mark to put BYU up 17-5.

"Defensively, the first 10 or 12 minutes was as good a defensive effort as we've had all season," Cleveland said.

A lay-up by Woodberry, followed by a Hall dunk gave the Cougars a 29-10 lead and forced a Wildcats timeout at the 5:56 mark. After an Anthony Jackson made free throw, Araujo slammed a field goal home to give the Cougars' a 20-point lead, their largest of the half, 31-11. From there WSU outscored BYU 14-9 to narrow the half time deficit to 14 points, at 38-24, BYU. Araujo and Hall led the Cougars with 12 points a piece in the half.

The second half was in marked contrast to the first, as the Wildcats came out of the chute, a hot shooting team. BYU, though, countered with even hotter shooting to stem the WSU tide. The Cougars started the half 8-for-8 on field goals. With 10:56 to play in the half, BYU was shooting 92.9% (13-14) and WSU was knocking shots down at an 83.3% (10-12) clip.

Araujo helped to set the tone at the start of the half with three quick buckets, but it was Hall who brought the crowd to its feet, as he slashed to the basket down the left baseline and tomahawk jammed the ball over a Wildcats player at the 17:42 mark. Senior forward Jake Shoff fouled out scoreless for the game, but he single-handedly kept the momentum with BYU as he stole the ball from WSU's Lance Allred on three consecutive possessions early in the half.

"Jake Shoff did a good job," Cleveland said. "He gave us energy when we started to slow down."

The Cougars continued fend off the Wildcats and slowly built on their lead. Senior guard Mark Bigelow hit a trey at the 13:59 mark to give BYU a 22-point cushion at 61-39. Araujo then put down a breakaway dunk at the 12:09 mark to give the Cougars a 24-point edge at 67-43. Woodberry then hit another shot from downtown at the 9:20 mark to give BYU their largest lead of the game at 75-50, but that would be the Cougars' final field goal until a Garner Meads dunk with 33 seconds to go.

With a bulk of its reserves finishing the game, BYU struggled offensively, as WSU finished the game on a 15-8 run.

"They were tougher and better than us," Weber State coach Joe Cravens said. "They kind of, I guess, out-competed us and out-toughed us."

Bigelow tied a career-high with six assists on the night to go with nine points. Senior guard Luiz Lemes continues to excel in leading the team as he dished out a game-high nine assists.

BYU will have a couple of days off before another important instate match-up. The Cougars will travel to Logan, Utah, for a game against the Utah State Aggies Tuesday at 8 p.m., in a contest that will be televised live by KJZZ-TV.

"As for the progress of the team, there are still a number of things we need to get better at," Cleveland said. "We'll get tested seriously Tuesday night up at Logan."

Official Basketball Box Score -- GAME TOTALS -- FINAL STATISTICS
Weber State University vs Brigham Young University
12/20/03 7:07 at Brigham Young University
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VISITORS: Weber State University 5-4
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
02 SPARROW, Nic........ f  4-6    0-2    1-1    3  0  3   4   9  1  3  0  1  18
50 DANLEY, Patrick..... f  1-7    0-0    5-6    2  3  5   3   7  1  1  0  0  29
41 ALLRED, Lance....... c  6-12   1-2    2-2    0  1  1   3  15  0  3  0  0  25
22 HAMILTON, John...... g  6-9    3-6    3-3    0  3  3   1  18  6  1  0  0  29
55 DAVIS, Ryan......... g  1-3    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   2   2  1  0  0  0  19
00 JACKSON, Anthony....    2-3    0-0    1-2    0  2  2   2   5  0  0  0  0  10
03 EMADI, Matt.........    0-1    0-0    2-2    0  0  0   0   2  0  0  0  1   6
04 JENKINS, Jamaal.....    1-1    1-1    0-0    0  1  1   2   3  3  1  0  0  23
10 COX, Brett..........    1-3    0-2    0-0    0  0  0   1   2  0  1  0  1   7
11 GOODELL, Troy.......    1-4    0-2    0-0    2  5  7   0   2  2  1  0  0  23
12 NIPARAVICIUS, Matas.    0-1    0-1    0-2    0  2  2   3   0  0  4  0  0  11
   TEAM................                            1  1
   Totals..............   23-50   5-16  14-18   7 18 25  21  65 14 15  0  3 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half:  8-25 32.0%   2nd Half: 15-25 60.0%   Game: 46.0%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  2-10 20.0%   2nd Half:  3-6  50.0%   Game: 31.3%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  6-9  66.7%   2nd Half:  8-9  88.9%   Game: 77.8%    2
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HOME TEAM: Brigham Young University 7-1
                          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  3-10   1-5    2-2    0  1  1   1   9  6  1  0  1  23
52 JENSEN, Jared....... f  1-3    0-0    1-2    1  3  4   4   3  0  1  0  0  23
55 ARAUJO, Rafael...... c 11-14   0-1    1-2    3  4  7   3  23  0  1  1  2  24
01 HALL, Mike.......... g  8-12   1-3    5-5    3  2  5   1  22  4  1  1  2  29
04 LEMES, Luiz......... g  3-4    1-1    0-0    0  4  4   1   7  9  0  1  2  25
00 WOODBERRY, Kevin....    5-6    3-4    0-0    0  2  2   2  13  3  2  0  0  21
02 ROSE, Mike..........    0-2    0-2    1-3    0  2  2   1   1  0  0  0  0   8
05 SHOFF, Jake.........    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   5   0  2  3  0  4  13
10 NASHIF, Terry.......    0-2    0-1    0-0    1  0  1   1   0  2  1  0  1  13
15 DRESSER, Mike.......    0-0    0-0    1-2    0  0  0   0   1  0  0  0  0   2
41 MEADS, Garner.......    1-2    0-0    5-6    1  3  4   3   7  0  1  0  0  19
   TEAM................                            1  1
   Totals..............   32-55   6-17  16-22   9 22 31  22  86 26 11  3 12 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 17-29 58.6%   2nd Half: 15-26 57.7%   Game: 58.2%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  2-7  28.6%   2nd Half:  4-10 40.0%   Game: 35.3%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  2-3  66.7%   2nd Half: 14-19 73.7%   Game: 72.7%    2
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Officials: Bob Staffen, Bobby McRoy, Roosevelt Brown
Technical fouls: Weber State University-None. Brigham Young University-None.
Attendance: 12778
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Weber State University........   24   41  -   65
Brigham Young University......   38   48  -   86
Points in the paint-WEBER 22,BY 44. Points off turnovers-WEBER 6,BY 22.
2nd chance points-WEBER 8,BY 3. Fast break points-WEBER 0,BY 12.
Bench points-WEBER 14,BY 22. Score tied-1 time. Lead changes-1 time.