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Arizona vs BYU Basketball Recap

From the opening of McKale Center in February 1973 until this week, the Arizona Wildcats had never lost a home game by as many as 30 points and had never allowed a visiting player to score more than 45.But that all changed during Monday night’s annual Fiesta Bowl Classic at the nearly 37-year-old Tucson arena, as Brigham Young junior guard Jimmer Fredette torched Arizona for a McKale Center record 49 points to lead the Cougars to a 99-69 rout over the Wildcats.

“Jimmer Fredette’s performance tonight was incredible,” Arizona head coach Sean Miller said about the 6-foot-2, 195-pound BYU guard, who also finished with nine assists and seven rebounds. “Did we have something to do with it? Yes. We struggle to defend the other team’s best perimeter player. But when a guy not only scores 49 but has nine assists, you take a look and just say that he and his performance alone really dictated the final score. He was incredible.”

Fredette, who made 16 of 23 shots from the field including 9 of 13 from three-point range, broke Brigham Young’s single-game scoring record of 47 points that was set by Bob Skousen against UCLA in 1961.

“It’s an amazing feeling, unlike any other,” Fredette said. “You work so hard in the off-season and from game to game, and to go out and play like that is just amazing.”

Fredette’s final shot, a three-pointer from the top of the key, gave the Cougars their biggest lead at 95-62 with 2:58 remaining. It also gave him the school record.

“I didn’t know what the record was before that last timeout (with less than four minutes left),” Fredette said. “Before that last shot, the coaches told me I just needed one more basket, and luckily it went in.”

Fredette scored 24 points in the first half and 25 in the second. With his 49 points, Fredette set a record for most points scored in a game at McKale Center. He broke the old mark of 45 that was set by Eric Murdock of Providence on Dec. 23, 1990.

“He reminds me a lot of Mark Price, who played at Georgia Tech and had a long career in the NBA,” Miller said about Fredette. “I’m not an NBA general manager, but I’d like to think that I’ll put him up against a lot of guards in this country, based on what he can do with and without the ball, how easily he can get his own shot. He doesn’t necessarily need a lot of help to get his own shot. A lot of the shots he scored tonight, he just can create in an uncanny way. I’ve watched him do it against other teams as well.”

Fredette’s previous career high was 33 points, a total which he achieved in a 110-104 victory over Nevada on Dec. 22. Entering Monday’s contest, he was averaging 19.5 points per game.

Fredette’s 49-point outburst on Monday tied the record for most points by a player from the Mountain West Conference, matching the mark set in 2001 by Trevor Diggs of UNLV (in a game against Wyoming).

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“He just has a lot of confidence and thinks everything he is putting up is going in,” BYU head coach Dave Rose said about Fredette, who set another BYU record Monday by making nine shots from beyond the three-point arc.

After the Cougars built a 51-36 halftime lead, the Wildcats scored the first eight points after the intermission to close to within 51-44. Arizona freshman forward/center Derrick Williams tallied four of his team-high 17 points during the sequence.

BYU quickly regained control as Fredette scored seven consecutive points to make it 58-44.

“They got it down to seven, but we continued to put the pressure on,” Fredette said.

In outscoring the Wildcats 48-25 over the final 17:21, the Cougars handed Arizona its worst loss ever at McKale Center. The UA’s previous most-lopsided defeat at McKale was a 92-64 setback against Oregon State on March 5, 1982.

BYU won its eighth consecutive game and improved to 13-1 on the season. While the Cougars are not ranked by the AP or in the Coaches Poll, Miller believes they should be.

“I look at them as certainly a top-25 team very easily,” Miller said. “I believe they’ll be competing for a very high seed in the NCAA Tournament. Having coached a 3 seed and a 4 seed the last two years (at Xavier), to me they’re along that company line.”

Miller described Brigham Young last week as “the best team that we’ll play all season.” Following Monday’s defeat, Miller reiterated his respect for the Cougars.

“BYU is leaps and bounds better (than the Wildcats),” Miller said. “If we played them seven times, I’d like to think we could do a better job against them. But it would be very difficult for us to beat them based on the way they are as a team and the way we are.”

Arizona , which completed its non-conference schedule with a 6-6 record, will begin Pac-10 competition at USC on Thursday and will play at UCLA on Saturday morning.

“My biggest worry is that you can really lose confidence when you get beat like that and you’re going through the 12-game schedule that we have,” Miller said. “We’ll learn our lessons and keep getting our young team better, but there are no easy answers right now here at Arizona.”

By Tom Kessler
DFN Sports Staff Writer