This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
On a bitter cold night in Provo, the Cougars dished out an icy plate of revenge to their visitors from Los Angeles here Thursday night at the Marriott Center. After a slow start — LMU actually had an 11-6 lead in the game — the Cougars crushed the Lions 92-51 in front of 18,160 fans in the WCC opener. Hard to believe that this was pretty much the same LMU team that blasted the Cougars 82-68 on Jan. 19 last year. "I was really pleased with our performance tonight," BYU coach Dave Rose said. Matt Carlino led the Cougars with 21 points and Tyler Haws added 20. Josh Sharp had a career-high 12 rebounds, and footballer Bronson Kaufusi even got in the game and scored a late bucket. The Cougars have outscored their opponents 189-122 the last two games, having walloped Virginia Tech on Saturday. "We are getting better, and it is a good time to start getting better," Carlino said. Naturally, LMU coach Max Good was not happy with the way his team played in falling to 7-7 on the season, 0-1 in WCC play. "BYU won every phase of the game," Good said. "They transitioned better than us, rebounded better, shot better, defended better, coached better. They laid the wood to us tonight. Can't do much when you shoot the way we did and guarded the way we did, especially in transition." The Cougars shot 50 percent and held the Lions to 30.8 percent, including 23.5 percent in the first half. "They got on a roll there after we took a lead and hit us in the mouth, and we just did not answer. Give BYU credit, they worked hard and I have a great deal of respect for their program. They pushed us every chance they got and we had no answer."