PROVO — The BYU basketball team will throw big man Rafael Araujo up against another undersized opponent tonight when the Cougars face Div. II Western Oregon in the Marriott Center (no TV).
Western Oregon (5-1) and the Cougars (4-1) tip it off tonight at 7 p.m., in what may be another mismatch inside. Cougar senior Araujo proved spectacular in two BYU wins over Boise State and Oklahoma State, making 20 of 28 shots from the field for 63 points. In both those contests, smaller defenders tried to stand in his way.
"We've worked very hard at attacking with the post with passes from the top of the key which is tougher to defend and Rafael is improving and has managed to stay out of foul trouble and that's a key," BYU coach Steve Cleveland said.
This is the first meeting between the Wolves and BYU. Western Oregon is fresh off a pair of wins over Central Washington and Saint Martin's. The Wolves feature a player, Sean Kelly, who signed with the Cougars out of Grand Junction, Colo., before attending Ricks College for one year. Kelly had 46 points, 15 rebounds and eight steals the past two games and is averaging 19 points per game during the season.
Like Boise State and Oklahoma State, the Wolves will go with a three-guard lineup, and the biggest starter is 6-foot-7 Dave Brautigam. On the other hand, Araujo's teammates are finding him in the post with more consistent passing. Against a smaller but more athletic Oklahoma State, the Brazilian scored 26 second-half points.
BYU assistant head coach Dave Rose broke down film of the Wolves and is impressed.
"They are well-coached," he said. "They run good offensive sets and they seem to be pretty good shooters, are very experienced and they're kind of on a roll right now at 5-1. They are experienced, tough and scrappy and when they're left open, they tend to hit most of their shots."
COUGAR NOTES: Senior Mark Bigelow has found a way to assert himself into the point column despite continued struggles with his shooting stroke from beyond the arc. Bigelow has made just four 3-pointers in five games and is shooting an icy 17 percent from behind the 3-point line, but he scored 15, including eight from the line, in the OSU win. In contrast, freshman Michael Rose, in basically one flurry against Southern Utah, has made twice as many 3-pointers (eight) . . . BYU administrators and marketing people were thrilled with the 16,285 attendance figure in the Delta Center for the Cougar-Cowboy matchup. That attendance may represent the largest crowd to ever witness a college basketball game in Salt Lake City. The crowd record at the Jon Huntsman Center on Utah's campus is 15,755 set in 1993 when the Utes and Cougars played. A Delta Center mark at a WAC Tournament is 13,319 for a BYU vs. New Mexico matchup in 1993. Does the fact BYU drew that many away from the Marriott Center make any kind of statement to administrators? "We thought 14,000 would be a great turnout, what we got was awesome," associate athletic director Duff Tittle said. "Part of it was no TV, another part was having a ranked opponent." . . . Araujo's back-to-back 30-point scoring performances is the first such feat since Terrell Lyday scored 30-plus against Utah State and UNLV in January 2000.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com