LARAMIE, Wyo. — The day after his undermanned BYU basketball team upset No. 15 New Mexico at the Pit five years ago and snapped the Lobos' 41-game home-winning streak, Cougar coach Steve Cleveland fielded a phone interview from ESPN Radio's The Sports Babe about the victory. "I thought I had made the big time," he recalled.
Cleveland admittedly now has an equally important and impressive road victory following Saturday afternoon's 74-66 victory over Wyoming before an Arena Auditorium crowd of 15,418. The Cougars not only beat a co-leader in the Mountain West Conference standings and preseason league favorite but also snapped their five-loss drought in Laramie and the Cowboys' string of 12 straight MWC home victories.
With church meetings, an afternoon drive to Denver to tape his weekly coach's TV show and an evening fireside on tap for today, it's likely Cleveland won't have a Babe-like experience to underscore the magnitude of Saturday's victory. But it's not needed.
"It's been a long time coming, and it's nice to have a little bit of a break-through," he said. "This is certainly, in the past 4 1/2 years, the biggest road win for us."
Mark Bigelow scored 23 points to lead a BYU quartet in double figures. Rafael Araujo battled the altitude in his first Laramie trip to add 17 points, while Travis Hansen contributed 15 and Jared Jensen 10. The four scored all but nine of the Cougars' 74 points.
Wyoming's two senior scoring leaders led the Cowboys as expected — Nigerian center Uche Nsonwu-Amadi with 20 points and guard Donta Richardson 19.
The Cougars kept their composure and the lead for the final 28 minutes, weathering both a disparity in personal fouls and a late Cowboy comeback to improve to 16-5 overall and 5-1 in the MWC standings. Wyoming (16-5, 4-2) started the day even with BYU and Utah for the league lead but ended it with a second straight league loss.
With BYU winless in his four previous four trips to Laramie, Cleveland admitted to "trying everything" during this trip in search for success. Friday night's practice — 20 minutes each of shooting and walk-throughs — was unusually brief, and the Cougars even tried a different Laramie restaurant.
In the end, it wasn't karma or superstition that won out — it was rebounding. The Cougars outboarded the Cowboys 37-31 — seemingly not a major margin, except Wyoming used late surges at the end of both halves to make up much of the difference.
"That was our number one thing," said Cleveland of the rebounding edge. "Initially, they are going to beat you off the dribble and on second shots. We didn't allow a lot of second shots, but they got some."
The Cowboys also got to the free-throw line early and often, shooting 24-of-30, compared to BYU's 12-of-16. While the final foul count was 22 for BYU and 17 for Wyoming, four Cowboys' personals were in the final three-plus minutes of the first half and another six in a similar stretch at the end of the second.
Araujo's 17 points and seven rebounds came from a labored effort, with the Brazilian center visibly suffering — even doubled over — from the effects of the altitude. Serving as a reminder was a sign near visitors' locker room: "Elevation 7,200 — How's your oxygen?"
"He could barely breathe out there," Cleveland said. "I don't know what the altitude is in Sao Paulo, but this is the highest point he's ever played basketball in his life."
With Araujo gasping and Jensen fouling out with 12 minutes to play, reserves like Jake Shoff and Bart Jepsen were called to bang with the big 'Boys. Shoff responded with four points and a team-high 10 boards, while Jepsen's more-than-cameo appearance resulted in a basket, a rebound and — more importantly — a presence against Nsonwu-Amadi and Co.
"Anytime you come here, the big guys are in foul trouble," Hansen said. "But we had the depth to take the hit."
Wyoming coach Steve McClain acknowledged the post depth, composure and rebounding of what he labeled "Cleveland's best team. "When you let a good-shooting team like BYU get second and third shots, they're going to make them," he added.
In the opening half, BYU set the tone of not shooting particularly well but rebounding strong and limited Wyoming. The Cowboys led just once — at 12-11 and were even just once — at 16-all with 9:32 left in the half.
The Cougars pulled out to a 10-point lead, withheld a Wyoming surge that cut it to three and then settled for a 35-28 score at the half. BYU shot just 13-of-39 for 39.4 percent. But Wyoming was worse on a third fewer shots — 7-of-22 for 31.8 percent.
Through the second half's first six minutes, the Cougars led by as many as 13. But when Jensen exited with his fourth and fifth personals in the next 80 seconds, the Cowboys started dropping the deficit to below double digits — eventually 66-61 with 4:12 left.
Following one of several verbal flurries between the Cougar coaches and the officials — Bigelow was whistled for stepping out of bounds underneath the basket by one ref as another called a Wyoming foul — two Nsonwu-Amadi free throws cut the score to 66-63 with 1:33 to play.
"But we were still pretty calm," Bigelow said. "I felt like we were in control."
But the 'Boys could muster only a Richardson trey the rest of the way, as Hansen in the final minutes logged a block, a steal and deflection that ended up being one of Kevin Woodberry's game-high five steals.
Offensively, Bigelow hit 4-of-4 from the line, Hansen 2-of-2 and Araujo underneath basket — with Bigelow's first two coming on getting a ref's call just as the shot clock was to expire.
NOTES: BYU faces a similar task in Monday night's game at Colorado State — the Cougars haven't won in Fort Collins in six tries . . . BYU outscored Wyoming in three categories -in the paint (20-14), off turnovers (23-9) and on second chances (17-10) . . . The Cougars ended up shooting 45.2 percent, the Cowboys 38.3 . . . Woodberry, who returned to the starting lineup, didn't score but ended with six rebounds, five steals and three assists.
E-mail: taylor@desnews.com