FORT COLLINS — It wasn’t enough for Colorado State to be backed by a Moby Arena sellout to play No. 9-ranked BYU on competitive terms.
BYU is very good. And senior guard Jimmer Fredette, the nation’s leading scorer, is great. Fredette hit 16-of-17 free throws and scored 42 points Saturday night, helping BYU hold off CSU 94-85 before 8,745 in the Cougars’ last Mountain West Conference game at Moby Arena.
“We don’t like to give up 94 points in our own gym,” said CSU coach Tim Miles, rapidly becoming the most popular man in Fort Collins. “I don’t care what ranked team they are in the country, I don’t like to lose.”
But Miles wasn’t about to claim that the Rams (13-6, 3-2 MWC) should have, or could have, won this shootout with the Cougars (19-1, 5-0).
“They beat us in a lot of ways,” said Miles, whose Rams remained in third place in conference play.
Despite the best early efforts of CSU sophomore guard Wes Eikmeier and a late entry by Rams freshman Dwight Smith, Fredette had his way.
After entering the game with a 25.8 average, the 6-foot-2 scoring machine from Glens Falls, N.Y., had only eight points in the first 11 minutes. By halftime, though, Fredette had 21 points.
“They are an improved team,” Fredette said of the Rams. “They tried a bunch of different things. They made it tough. We knew they would draw energy from the crowd.”
Despite Fredette’s outburst, CSU proved it’s a force in the MWC.
“We showed we could play with them,” said Eikmeier, who scored a career-high 25 points. “If we are going to beat a team like that, we are going to have to get a jump-start.”
Fredette’s last basket of the first half with 1:20 left lifted BYU into 55-40 lead. In past years, a blowout would have ensued. This time, CSU made several runs in the second half but couldn’t get closer than 79-73 with 5:14 remaining.
“This team will not quit,” Miles said of the Rams.
Eikmeier cut BYU’s lead to less than 10 points by burying a shot from the right corner. After two missed BYU foul shots, Andy Ogide scored and the Rams trailed by only seven points with 1:39 left.
The game drew the first Moby Arena sellout crowd in nearly eight years. But coming off their biggest road win in years at UNLV, the Rams couldn’t make it two straight wins against the MWC’s upper echelon.
FG FT Reb
BYU (19-1, 5-0) Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Davies 23 5-8 2-4 5-9 2 5 12
Hartsock 19 1-5 0-0 1-3 1 4 3
Emery 38 6-12 0-0 0-1 3 1 16
K. Collinsworth 36 6-8 3-4 2-6 6 3 16
Fredette 38 11-24 16-17 0-4 4 2 42
Abouo 17 2-2 0-0 0-0 0 3 5
Magnusson 9 0-2 0-0 1-1 0 0 0
Anderson 14 0-0 0-0 0-2 1 4 0
Rogers 6 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 1 0
Totals 200 31-62 21-25 11-33 17 23 94
Percentages: FG .500, FT .840. 3-point goals: 11-26, .423 (Fredette 4-9, Emery 4-10, Abouo 1-1, K. Collinsworth 1-1, Hartsock 1-2, Rogers 0-1, Magnusson 0-2). Team rebounds: 6. Blocked shots: 5 (Hartsock 2, Davies, Anderson, Abouo). Turnovers: 7 (Fredette 2, K. Collinsworth 2, Rogers, Abouo, Hartsock). Steals: 4 (Fredette 2, Davies, Emery). Technical fouls: None.
FG FT Reb
CSU (13-6, 3-2) Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Franklin 27 6-10 9-14 2-4 2 2 21
Ogide 33 6-11 6-8 5-10 1 3 18
Eikmeier 36 9-19 2-2 1-5 5 2 25
Nigon 12 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 2 0
Green 34 2-7 3-4 0-2 5 4 8
Hornung 15 2-3 0-0 1-2 0 1 4
Wiltz 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Carr 6 0-0 0-0 0-2 1 1 0
Bell 4 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 1 0
D. Smith 12 1-1 2-2 1-2 1 3 5
G. Smith 18 1-4 2-3 0-2 1 2 4
Totals 200 27-56 24-33 12-34 17 21 85
Percentages: FG .482, FT .727. 3-point goals: 7-14, .500 (Eikmeier 5-9, D. Smith 1-1, Green 1-3, Wiltz 0-1). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 4 (Ogide 2, D. Smith, G. Smith). Turnovers: 12 (Ogide 3, Franklin 3, G. Smith 3, Green, Hornung, Eikmeier). Steals: 4 (Nigon, G. Smith, Green, Franklin). Technical fouls: None.
Brigham Young 55 39 — 94
Colorado State 40 45 — 85
A — 8,745. Officials —Bill Gracey, Larry Spaulding, Hal Lusk.
Natalie Meisler: 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
