PROVO — Trent Plaisted scored 20 points and hauled in nine rebounds to lead BYU past Division II Montevallo (Alabama) 92-63 Wednesday night in the Marriott Center to conclude BYU's exhibition game schedule heading into Friday's Cougar Tipoff. The Cougars officially open the season at UCLA next week.
Plaisted nearly got his double-double in 20 minutes of work, converting 8 of 9 shots from the field as Keena Young added 12 and freshman Jonathan Tavernari drilled all three of his 3-point shots and finished with 11 points.
"Trent Plaisted is a really, really good player. He'll be in the NBA one day," said Montevallo coach Danny Young. "It would be a very good game between BYU and Alabama."
"I think that the biggest impression for me was to watch our guys try and guard something completely different from what we see in practice," said BYU coach Dave Rose.
Montevallo, a top-ranked Division II team, lost by 11 at No. 11 ranked Alabama earlier this month and showed plenty of speed for the Cougar defense to handle.
Said Rose, "We need to improve our defense, not reach in and move our feet. It was good for us to experience that because we'll see players who can get off their shot. Their All-Americans were definitely players."
The Falcons kept coming at BYU in the first half. They were led by their top scorer, Greg Brown, who made 6 of 10 shots in the first half (15 points) and finished with 26.
The Falcons got 15 from their other All-American, Marcus Kennedy. Brown was a load for BYU's guards to handle because of his shot-making skills. Rose assigned four different players to guard Brown at different times, just to get the experience.
"That guy can freaking shoot it," said Plaisted of Brown.
Brown finished with a game-high 26 points, connecting on 11 of 21 shots from the field. "He could play in our league," Rashaun Broadus said of Brown. "But he has a lot of freedom to shoot where guys like (San Diego State guard) Brandon Heath has to play within an offense."
BYU led 45-35 at the half, and no Cougar starter played more than 12 minutes in the first half. Rose went with Broadus, Young, Lee Cummard, Plaisted and Jimmy Balderson to start the game.
The Cougars got in foul trouble early. Plaisted went to the bench with two fouls in the first nine minutes. Lee Cummard followed with a pair and got his third personal in about a minute when he returned to the floor late in the first period.
Plaisted, who hit all four of his field goals in the first half, played just 10 minutes in that span but posted 12 points and 4 rebounds.
"In these two games, we had matchup problems with our big players because they had to guard guys who were much smaller and that causes fouls," Rose said. "This won't be the case for the next eight or nine games; it will be more of what it's supposed to be."
The Falcons held their own with the Cougars on the board in the first half (20-20), and that gave Rose a chance to experiment with Plaisted and 6-foot-10 Vuk Ivanovic on the court at the same time to start the second half. Ivanovic picked up his fourth personal foul three minutes after intermission, sat and then fouled out late in the second half.
Broadus hit two bombs, and Sam Burgess added a third in the span of two minutes of the second half to lead the Cougars to a 66-48 advantage with 13 minutes to play. BYU opened the second half hitting 4 of 5 treys in the initial 2:20.
"The thing that impressed me the most is we had 24 assists on 36 field goals, and that's what we've emphasized is sharing the ball," Rose said.
Leading 66-50, Rose called time out at the 11:50 mark and put in Burgess with Fernando Malaman, Tavernari, Austin Ainge and Michael Rose.
Tavernari, a freshman from Las Vegas hit back to back 3-point shots and hit a short jumper to put BYU up 77-56 with 8:20 to play.
The annual Cougar Tipoff is Friday at 6 p.m. in the Marriott Center. The men's team will play a 40-minute scrimmage prior to the start of the women's preseason NIT game against Idaho State at 7:30 p.m. The event is free to season ticket holders and student all-sport card holders.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com