This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A season of bad breaks — unfortunate bounces, close losses and untimely injuries — turned around in a hurry for the BYU basketball team on Saturday night, and not just in Spokane.

Not only did the Cougars snap the Zags' 41-game home winning streak with a 73-70 win, they earned the second seed in the WCC Tournament because Saint Mary's was upset 71-70 by Santa Clara.

Had SMC won, BYU would have received the No. 3 seed, and would be playing Portland on Saturday in the quarterfinals just nine days after outlasting the Pilots in a struggle in Portland.

Instead, the Cougars will get either Santa Clara or Loyola Marymount. They swept those teams rather easily in the regular season.

Case you are unaware, Saturday's BYU game will tip off a little after 9 p.m. MST (8 p.m. in Las Vegas) and will be televised by ESPN2.

"I am just ready to go," said BYU guard Kyle Collinsworth after the big upset. "I am going to celebrate with my teammates tonight, relax, and take my mind off basketball and enjoy this. On Monday, we will get back to work."

Of course, the famed Sports Illustrated cover jinx could be blamed, by Gonzaga, for Saturday's result, one of the bigger wins in coach Dave Rose's 10-year tenure. Zags' forward Kyle Wiltjer was on the cover of SI this week, and had a subpar game, going 2 of 11 from the field for just four points.

Eerily, the opening paragraph of the story talks about Wiltjer's penchant for making trick shots and extremely long shots. Then the Kentucky transfer almost made a halfcourt shot at the buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime.

From my angle halfway up the arena at center court, it looked like it had a chance to go the whole way.

Collinsworth said the game plan on Wiltjer was to guard him aggressively and contest every shot.

"So credit to us [for the defense] and also sometimes guys just have bad nights. So, a little bit of both," he said.

Not sure it will ever hit the interwebs, but there's a pretty good video out there of BYU players celebrating in the locker room after the historic win. No, Dave Rose wasn't hoisted on his players' shoulders like Bronco Mendenhall was after the Cal win, but the Cougars had themselves a good time nevertheless.

Parents of players were showing each other the video on their cell phones Sunday morning as they waited for their flights home out of the Spokane Airport.

"It was crazy," Collinsworth said. "It was kinda scary. A lot of water, a lot of ice, a lot of jumping around. But yeah, it was a good time. That's why I love basketball. I love winning big games, and celebrating with my teammates, and just reflect back on all the hard work we've done.

We've had a lot of ups and downs, but hard work is paying off."

Skyler Halford's description of the celebration: "It was beautiful, man. It was water everywhere. Guys were jumping up and down and hugging each other. It was great. It was awesome."

Not to be overlooked was Corbin Kaufusi's contribution to the win: seven points, six rebounds, three blocks, two steals in 29 minutes, which tied a career-high. He also played 29 minutes in the win at Loyola Marymount.

"Yeah, he's a stud," Collinsworth said. "He hasn't played a lot of basketball. I know his family, and when he got back from his mission, I said, 'Hey, let's not play football, let's play basketball.' Luckily, it worked out. He's going to be a stud. Everybody will be surprised a couple years down the road at how good he will be."

Halford said the Cougars strolled into the Kennel a confident bunch after playing extremely well in the second half of the 82-69 win over Portland.

"I didn't feel anything anxiety," he said. "I didn't feel any worry. I just felt really excited and I felt really good about the game. We were all extremely confident and we knew what we could do. We know what type of team we are. We are a good team. We knew we could come in here and get a win. We played together, did the best we could, and came out with a win."