PROVO — Grabbing a share of a third-straight Mountain West Conference crown with a win over league-winless Air Force on Saturday night wasn't supposed to be so difficult.
Well, at least that's what most fans thought. The Cougars, however, said they knew it wasn't going to be easy to get that final but necessary win over a team that has played much better recently than its 0-16 conference record. The Falcons came to Provo after taking UNLV down to the wire in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
"We were playing for a lot here tonight and I think Air Force gave us everything that we thought they would give us," BYU coach Dave Rose said.
But by stealing, literally, a 54-49 victory over the Falcons in a packed Marriott Center, the Cougars survived a feisty Falcon effort to hoist another conference trophy - the third for Rose in his four years as BYU's head guy.
"Winning three championships in a row at BYU is few and far between I think. I mean it's been a long time," he said.
The Cougars (24-6, 12-4) finished atop the conference tied with Utah and New Mexico. The Cougars enter next week's MWC Tournament in Las Vegas with the No. 1 seed after San Diego State — a team BYU swept — beat UNLV late Saturday night. Utah has the No. 2 seed and the Lobos the No. 3 seed.
Despite making only two of their first 12 shots and shooting only 25 percent in the first half — a season low — and missing all 11 3-point shots in the first half, the Cougars still trailed by only three (25-22) at the intermission after Air Force's Andrew Henke drilled a 3-pointer right before the buzzer.
The main reason the Cougars stayed within striking distance was defense, specifically from defensive specialist Jackson Emery — who had three first-half steals and nine of BYU's 22 first-half points from those steals.
"He came up really, really big just to keep us in the game so we had a chance to make some plays late," Rose said.
But Emery wasn't done there. In the second half, mainly late in the game when the Cougars could not get on a consistent roll to put some distance between themselves and the Falcons, Emery added three more steals — with each resulting in points on the other end for BYU.
"Jackson made plays all night," Cougar co-captain Lee Cummard said. "He was all over the place. He carried us for quite a bit. He was consistent all night."
An Emery steal and feed to Jimmer Fredette for a fast-break layup to start the second half tied the game 25-25. When Fredette hit a short jumper in the paint seconds later BYU had its first lead of the game at 27-25.
The Falcons, however, came right back with a Grant Parker three and a dunk by Trevor Noonan that put Air Force back on top. With 15:04 remaining, Cummard buried a 3-pointer from up, the Cougars' first outside basket of the game, to tie the score again.
The next minute belonged to Emery, who had a dunk and one, and a follow-up layup to give BYU its biggest lead yet — 35-30.
"We weren't hitting shots, I wasn't hitting shots, so I had to create something else," Emery said. "Fortunately I got my hands on a few balls and we made some big plays from that."
The Falcons, however, did what they had done all game by hitting long 3-pointers to catch the Cougars and actually lead 41-38 on a steal and dunk by Henke.
That's when the Cougars got a much-needed about-face hot streak from Jonathan Tavernari. At that time the junior quick shot artist was 0-for-9 from the floor, and had just came back into the game after a little pep talk from Rose.
"I told him that what happens from here on out is what matters," Rose said.
With a spinning layup, then a fall-away jumper and 3-pointer from the left corner, Tavernari's seven straight Cougar points put the BYU back up 45-42.
But the bombs-away Falcons came right back. Two free throws by Henke with 1:34 left tied the game 47-47. The Cougars called time and set up a down screen for Cummard, who was fouled driving the baseline and hit both free throws. On Air Force's next possession Emery swiped a pass and raced in for a dunk but was fouled hard. He made one of two. Cummard then blocked a shot on the other end, was fouled on the loose ball and sank both free throws with 34 seconds left. He made two more free throws a few seconds later to seal the deal.
"Luckily down the stretch (Tavernari) got on a little run. Jimmer made plays, Jackson made plays all night, and luckily we got things going for us in the end," Cummard said.
Cummard led the Cougars with 17, which included 10-of-10 from the line. Emery added 15 points and six steals. Fredette scored 13 and had three steals.
For the game, the Cougars missed their first 14 3-point attempts, made only 3-of-22 and finished shooting only 34 percent from the field.
"Everybody was struggling tonight ... 34 percent is not us, but we'll take the win," Cummard said.
However, the Cougars did have 12 steals, force the Falcons into 22 turnovers, and BYU hit 21-of-25 from the charity stripe.
"The guys just figured out a way to win the game," Rose said.
Game notes: For the first time BYU coach Dave Rose, following Saturday's close win over Air Force, publicly stated that the Cougars deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. As does Utah and New Mexico, he said. "You win this league and you should play in the NCAA Tournament," Rose said. "That's what I believe. This is a great league and if you can share a championship, or win a championship, you should get an opportunity to play there."
Lee Cummard, however, wouldn't go that far when asked the same question. "Right now all I'm going to talk about is the net I have around my neck and the ring I'm going to have on my finger," Cummard said.
With under a minute to play Jackson Emery stole an Air Force pass, but as he started to race back down toward BYU's end he paused after thinking he heard a whistle. He looked at the official, who looked at him, and then Emery took off again and was fouled hard on a dunk attempt. Air Force's players and bench also thought they heard a whistle and that some Falcon players actually stopped on the play. None of the three officials, however, said they blew a whistle ... when Cummard sank two free throws with 1:11 left in the first half he passed Kresimir Cosic for 10th on BYU's all-time scoring list ... the attendance Saturday was a Marriott Center sellout, 22,700 ... the Cougars' first-round game at the MWC Tournament will be Thursday at 1 p.m. mountain time against the winner of the play-in game between Air Force and Colorado State.