AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo.—Trent Plaisted was hit so hard by the flu, his body revolted at the mere thought of playing.
Yet the idea of not playing made him feel even worse.
So 10 minutes before the game, Plaisted sprinted into the locker room, changed into his uniform and was back in time for the opening tip.
An under-the-weather Plaisted grabbed nine boards in limited minutes, Jonathan Tavernari scored 22 points and Lee Cummard had 21, lifting Brigham Young to a 69-53 win over Air Force on Wednesday night.
“I could’ve sworn I was on my death bed,” Plaisted said. “But seeing my teammates warming up, I thought I might as well give it a go.”
The Cougars (16-5, 5-1 Mountain West) have now won four straight over the Falcons, including two in a row at Clune Arena, a place where Air Force has been notoriously difficult to beat in recent years. The Falcons have won 65 of 69 games at home since 2003.
It was also Air Force’s worst home loss in more than six years—a 64-44 loss to Tennessee Tech—and worst conference loss since a 98-73 setback against UNLV on Jan. 15, 2000.
“They are a very talented offensive team,” Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said. “We didn’t do a good job of finishing.”
The Cougars were surprised to see their star center take the court considering his condition. Plaisted caught a flu bug Monday and had eight bags of IV fluids pumped into him over the course of two days. He was sick all Tuesday night, but managed to keep down a bowl of fruit and some noodles with no sauce before the game.
“For him to come out and play like that was big time,” Tavernari said. “Trent is as good as it gets.”
Plaisted scored his team’s opening basket and thought he was in for a 40-point night. And then he began to feel nauseated, subbing himself out when it got too bad. He played 19 minutes, scoring nine points.
“After the first two minutes, I was like, ‘There’s 38 minutes left?'” Plaisted said. “I didn’t know how I was going to make it through. I got elbowed in my stomach once and started gagging. Luckily, I had nothing in my stomach.”
Tavernari and Cummard picked up the slack when Plaisted went to the bench. Tavernari had four 3-pointers, a career high four assists, four rebounds and three steals.
Cummard was his usual solid self, grabbing eight boards, dishing out five assists and turning in his second straight game of at least 20 points.
“Good team win. We got great play out of everyone tonight,” Cummard said. “I thought we were pretty dialed in defensively tonight.”
Air Force (11-8, 3-3) was led in scoring by Tim Anderson with 22 points. Keith Maren finished with a career-high 15 points. He also scored Air Force’s first 11 points at the beginning of the game.
Andrew Henke, the Falcons’ second-leading scorer, didn’t score until hitting a layup early in the second half, his only points of the game.
“The key to the game was getting stops when we needed them and we couldn’t do that,” said Anderson, who’s averaging 25 points over his last three home games. “They have a lot of weapons and it’s tough to stop them.”
The Falcons cut the lead to 53-48 on a layup by Matt Holland with 7:15 remaining, but Cummard ended any thoughts of a comeback with a long 3-pointer on the next possession. BYU went on a 16-5 run over the final 7 minutes to secure its fourth straight win.
“We just executed well,” BYU coach Dave Rose said. “That’s how you win games.”
Having the team’s star center rise up off the bench, get dressed and contribute valuable minutes—despite having the flu—doesn’t hurt, either.
