Wash. St. -- 70
BYU -- 69PULLMAN, Wash. -- Freshman Mark Bigelow scored a career-high 33 points Tuesday, but it wasn't enough to keep BYU from dropping its fourth consecutive road game. Washington State prevailed 70-69 as the visiting Cougars were plagued by too many fouls and too little offense from others.
"I can have the best game of my life, but if we don't win it doesn't mean much," Bigelow said after BYU fell to 2-5 on the season. "We know we're a much better team than we're showing right now. We've got to dig inside ourselves and see what we've got to do to play to our potential."
Though disappointed with the outcome, BYU coach Steve Cleveland was pleased with the effort. He said there's no question the Cougars played much better than they did in a 31-point setback at Oregon Saturday. The problem, he added, was too many things were out of BYU's control.
Forwards Silester Rivers and Nathan Cooper each fouled out after combining for just five points -- leaving BYU, once again without the services of center Bret Jepsen (concussion), shorthanded down the stretch.
It almost didn't matter.
Trailing 61-51 shortly after Rivers fouled out, the Cougars turned to Bigelow who scored all of BYU's points in a 13-3 run that tied the game with 2:51 remaining. The freshman, however, didn't score again as Washington State pulled away with three points apiece by Eddie Miller and Jan-Michael Thomas. Four of the scores came from the free throw line in the final 1:08, including two by Thomas to make it 70-66. Michael Vranes provided the final margin when he connected on a three-pointer with less than two seconds to play.
Turnovers and missed free throws prevented BYU from keeping pace in the closing minutes. Despite the shortcomings, the Cougars wound up shooting a better percentage than their hosts from the field (.451), foul line (.714) and three-point arc (.500). In addition, BYU grabbed 40 rebounds to meet a challenge Cleveland extended to his team before the game.
"Those numbers are good enough to win," said Cleveland, whose squad became the 41st consecutive non-Pacific 10 Conference team to lose in Pullman.
BYU held a 34-31 advantage at halftime but saw the lead change hands seven times and the score even on two occasions in the second half.
Washington State hit three consecutive three-pointers during one stretch to take a 57-49 lead. Thomas, who hit two of the treys, finished with 22 points to top two other teammates in double figures. Vranes scored 10 to join Bigelow as the only BYU players to do so.