Feb. 14, 2007
PROVO, Utah (AP) – Keena Young scored 23 points and pulled down nine rebounds to lead Brigham Young to a 96-83 win over New Mexico Wednesday night.
BYU (20-6, 10-2 Mountain West) pushed its home court winning streak to 29 consecutive games and has now won seven straight overall and 15 of its last 17 games.
New Mexico (14-11, 3-7) used a 9-1 run that featured five points by Ryan Kersten to cut a 20 point Cougar lead to 12 with 2:00 remaining in the game, but that was as close as the Lobos could get.
In the first half, BYU used a 10-2 run to turn a 10-10 game into an eight point lead at 20-12 with 12:36 remaining. The Lobos could get no closer than five the rest of the way.
The Cougars controlled the boards with a 41-27 rebounding advantage and out-shot the Lobos 60 to 48 percent from the field. Fifty-eight of BYU’s points came in the paint.
BYU had a total of five players in double figures. In addition to Young, Austin Ainge scored 15, Trent Plaisted 14, Jimmy Balderson 13, and Mike rose 12.
New Mexico’s J.R. Giddens who went scoreless from the field against BYU in Albuquerque, scored a team-high 19 points followed by Kersten with 13 off the bench.