Meads' Career Night Lifts Cougars Over Aztecs

PROVO -- It took overtime and a 16-0 run but the Cougars captured their second-consecutive conference win on Monday night at home against the San Diego Aztecs with an 83-69 win on ESPN's Big Monday.

With the win the Cougars improved to 4-4 in Mountain West play and 14-7 overall while the Aztecs fell to 3-5 in MWC play and 12-11 overall.

Senior Rafael Araujo was unusually quiet on offense for the night as he finished with seven points, six rebounds and four assists. What wasn't quiet about Araujo was his defense.

"In the end, Rafa got a huge defensive ballgame going," BYU head coach Steve Cleveland said. "It's nice to win a game when he's not scoring 25 points a game."

Five Cougars scored in double figures to lead the way for BYU, mostly off the open looks that many Cougars got as the Aztecs focused their defense on Araujo.

"When Rafa gets as much attention as he does, it frees up other guys and Meads took care of that," said Cleveland.

Redshirt freshman Garner Meads benefited greatly from the free looks as he recorded a career-high 19 points while junior Mike Hall finished two points short of his career high with 20 points on the night.

Seniors Mark Bigelow, Luiz Lemes and Kevin Woodberry were the other Cougars to score in double figures with 10, 11 and 10, respectively.

On defense, the Cougars held the Aztecs leading scorer, Brandon Heath, to only three points on the night. That's down a great deal from his usual 16.7 points per game average.

San Diego opened up the game with a 7-0 run, which the Cougars followed with a 5-0 run of their own.

BYU's first lead of the game came with 16:34 left in the half as Hall stole the ball and dribbled the length of the court for a slam-dunk and put the Cougars up 10-9.

Araujo picked up his second foul only five minutes into the game and sat out the remainder of the half, entering intermission without having attempted a shot.

With Araujo on the bench, the other big men were called on to fill up the middle, and Shoff responded by tying his season high of four points in 13 minutes of action in the half.

Shoff scored the final basket of the half for the Cougars to keep BYU ahead of the Aztecs, 30-29, going into the break.

The second half started with the Cougars going on a 9-0 run, capped with a dunk by Meads as he rebounded Bigelow's missed three-point attempt.

BYU lead by as many as 10 at 58-48 with 7:52 left to play in the game, but the Aztecs went on a 9-1 run and made it a two-point game at 59-57 with 5:16 left to play.

With 49 seconds left in regulation, Heath gave the Aztecs a two-point lead at 65-67. The Cougars came down the court and Bigelow spotted up from the right-hand corner and buried a jumper to tie the game at 67 apiece with 35 second left in the game.

Heath brought the ball up for the Aztecs and dribbled down the clock and threw up a last second shot with the Lemes in his face that bounced around the rim and fell off with no time left, sending the game into overtime.

From the opening tip in the overtime the Cougars looked like a completely different team as they dominated the Aztecs up and down the floor.

Hall took the opening tip-off in for a two-handed jam with only five seconds ticking off the clock.

BYU stopped the Aztecs on their end of the floor, came down the court and Lemes nailed a three-pointer to give BYU a 72-67 lead.

The Cougars never looked back in the overtime as they went on a 16-0 run, not allowing the Aztecs a single basket until there was under a minute left. BYU went on to win 83-69.

Next up for the Cougars is a road trip to Laramie, Wyo., to play the Wyoming Cowboys on Saturday at 1 p.m. on ESPN+Plus.

Official Basketball Box Score -- GAME TOTALS -- FINAL STATISTICS
San Diego State vs Brigham Young University
2/09/04 10:05 pm at Provo, UT
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VISITORS: San Diego State 12-11, 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
03 WALTON, Chris....... f  6-12   2-4    3-3    2  6  8   5  17  2  5  1  3  38
42 SLAUGHTER, Marcus... f  4-6    1-3    2-3    0  6  6   3  11  1  3  0  2  34
34 SANDERS, Aerick..... c  5-9    0-0    3-4    4  5  9   4  13  2  3  0  1  45
01 HEATH, Brandon...... g  1-9    0-3    1-2    0  0  0   4   3  2  2  0  1  31
02 STOKES, Wesley...... g  3-5    1-1    2-2    0  0  0   5   9  1  1  0  2  15
00 JOHNSON, Tommy......    3-6    0-2    2-3    0  1  1   1   8  1  1  0  2  29
15 SHARPER, John.......    2-4    2-4    2-2    0  0  0   1   8  0  3  0  0  20
20 DAVIS, Trimaine.....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  1  0   7
32 WARDROP, Ben........    0-0    0-0    0-0    1  1  2   0   0  0  1  0  0   2
33 MANKER, Chris.......    0-1    0-1    0-0    1  0  1   1   0  1  1  0  0   4
   TEAM................
   Totals..............   24-52   6-18  15-19   8 19 27  24  69 10 20  2 11 225
TOTAL FG% 1st Half:11-23 47.8% 2nd Half:12-22 54.5% OT: 1-7 14.3% Game: 46.2% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-8  25.0% 2nd Half: 4-6  66.7% OT: 0-4  0.0% Game: 33.3%  REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 5-6  83.3% 2nd Half:10-13 76.9% OT: 0-0  0.0% Game: 78.9%   1
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HOME TEAM: Brigham Young University 14-7, 4-4
                          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  4-11   0-5    2-3    0  1  1   4  10  5  2  0  2  36
41 MEADS, Garner....... f  7-11   0-0    5-5    5  3  8   4  19  0  2  0  1  34
55 ARAUJO, Rafael...... c  3-4    0-0    1-2    2  4  6   4   7  4  1  0  3  27
01 HALL, Mike.......... g  6-10   0-2    8-9    2  3  5   2  20  2  4  0  5  41
04 LEMES, Luiz......... g  4-11   2-5    1-2    1  4  5   3  11  4  6  1  1  37
00 WOODBERRY, Kevin....    2-4    2-4    4-5    0  1  1   0  10  0  0  1  0  14
02 ROSE, Mike..........    0-2    0-2    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0   4
05 SHOFF, Jake.........    2-5    0-0    0-0    3  1  4   1   4  0  0  0  0  15
13 AINGE, Austin.......    1-2    0-1    0-0    0  2  2   0   2  1  2  0  0   4
52 JENSEN, Jared.......    0-1    0-0    0-0    1  2  3   2   0  0  0  0  0  13
   TEAM................                         3  2  5
   Totals..............   29-61   4-19  21-26  17 23 40  20  83 16 17  2 12 225
TOTAL FG% 1st Half:11-27 40.7% 2nd Half: 12-26 46.2% OT: 6-8 75.0% Game: 47.5% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-10 30.0% 2nd Half:  0-8   0.0% OT: 1-1 100 % Game: 21.1%  REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 5-7  71.4% 2nd Half: 13-16 81.3% OT: 3-3 100 % Game: 80.8%   1
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Officials: Tom O'Neill, Shawn Lehigh, Eric Curry
Technical fouls: San Diego State-None. Brigham Young University-None.
Attendance: 11695
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   OT   Total
San Diego State...............   29   38    2  -   69
Brigham Young University......   30   37   16  -   83
Points in the paint-SD 22,BY 46. Points off turnovers-SD 21,BY 24.
2nd chance points-SD 10,BY 10. Fast break points-SD 8,BY 15.
Bench points-SD 16,BY 16. Score tied-6 times. Lead changes-7 times.