Complete Box Score

PROVO, Utah (November 10, 2005)—Trent Plaisted had a double-double while leading BYU to an 86-72 roller-coaster victory over visiting Seattle Pacific University in a men's basketball exhibition game Thursday night.

BYU head coach Dave Rose said the Cougars showed resilience in coming from behind to beat the feisty Falcons.

SPU led much of the game, putting together several runs to get a pair of double-digit leads. But depth prevailed as the Falcons ran out of gas and BYU ran away with the victory. The win improved the Cougars’ exhibition record to 2-0. The Falcons are now 1-1 in exhibition games.

Seattle Pacific head coach Jeff Hironaka said the game definitely had ups and downs for both teams.

“It was a game of spurts,” he said. “We had some good runs that got us the momentum early but their [BYU’s] spurts were better and that’s why they won.”

Led by Dustin Bremerman, who scored nine first-half points, Seattle Pacific started the game on a 15-3 run in the first 3:20 of the first half.

BYU countered with its own 8-1 run triggered by two Keena Young blocks on one SPU possession that energized the Cougars and turned into a fast break and a Jimmy Balderson three-pointer on the other end. Lee Cummard’s fast-break dunk cut the Falcons’ lead to one at 20-19.

Seattle Pacific remained steady throughout the first half and didn’t give up its lead until the 6:19 point in the first half when Jackson Emery’s two foul shots gave the Cougars a 21-20 lead. The one-point margin was only BYU’s second lead of the game and its first since the 19:23 mark.

SPU, led by Robbie Will, answered back with six consecutive points to regain the lead and take a 35-33 advantage into halftime. The Falcons lead marked the first time since 2002 that the Cougars went into halftime trailing in an exhibition game.

Like the start of the game, SPU came out in the second half firing on all cylinders. Bremerman nailed a three-pointer to cap a 12-2 run while extending the Falcons’ lead to 47-35 and forcing the Cougars to take a time out.

BYU countered with a 14-1 run of its own capped by a Plaisted three-point play to turn a twelve-point deficit into a one-point lead. When Balderson nailed a three-pointer with 10:42 remaining, the Cougars grabbed a 54-53 lead, which BYU would never relinquish as the Cougars pushed it to a game-high six points when Rashaun Broadus went coast-to-coast to put BYU ahead 59-53 and force an SPU timeout.

Plaisted led all scorers and rebounders with 27 points and 12 boards. He is the first Cougar to record a double-double since Derek Dawes scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds against New Mexico last January. Balderson added 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field.

SPU was led by the one-two punch of Will and Bremerman who combined for 41 points and 15 rebounds.

The Falcons will finish their exhibition season Saturday night when they play New Mexico in Albuquerque.

The Cougars will begin regular-season play next Friday when they host Loyola Marymount at 7 p.m.