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Colorado St.-BYU Preview

Jan 15, 2010 - 5:59 PM By JEFF MEZYDLO STATS Senior Writer

Colorado State (11-5) at Brigham Young (17-1), 6:00 p.m. EDT

Colorado State has never won three straight to open Mountain West Conference play. A visit to BYU won't make achieving that feat any easier.

The No. 18 Cougars look for a 13th consecutive victory overall and 11th straight at home over the upstart Rams on Saturday in a matchup of conference co-leaders.

After a pair of double-digit victories over Wyoming and Air Force, Colorado State (11-5, 2-0) is off to its best conference start since winning its first two league games in 2002-03. Though their two previous opponents have combined for one conference victory, the Rams are still one of the Mountain West's biggest surprises after being picked to finish eighth in the league's preseason poll.

Colorado State has won three in a row and seven of nine, but coach Tim Miles knows his team's most difficult test awaits.

"It will be a bigger challenge at BYU," Miles told the school's official Web site.

That's because the Cougars (17-1, 2-0) are one of the hottest teams in the country, looking to win 13 in a row for the first time since Jan. 4-Feb. 15, 1993. BYU, winner of 15 in a row at the Marriott Center, has won six straight overall against Colorado State and hasn't lost at home to the Rams since falling 55-44 on Jan. 17, 1998.

The Cougars are among the nation's top shooting teams, making 50.9 percent from the field while boasting four players with double-figure scoring averages.

"In the West, other than Gonzaga, I'm not sure there's a better basketball team," Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said after BYU beat the Falcons 67-49 on Wednesday.

Jack Emery scored 21 points and Brandon Davies had 11 with 10 rebounds off the bench as the Cougars used a 28-6 second-half run to pull away from the Falcons, who were held to 18 points in the final 20 minutes.

Emery (13.2 points per game) and Davies (6.3 ppg) took charge for BYU while leading scorer Jimmer Fredette continues to be slowed by lingering effects from mononucleosis.

"Every game it seems like there's a new combination that helps us win," coach Dave Rose told the school's official Web site. "That's a sign of a good team, one that's progressing."

Fredette is averaging 19.9 points, but has totaled 15 in his last two contests after scoring a career-high 49 in a 99-69 win at Arizona on Dec. 28. The junior guard scored 15 points in each of his last two games against Colorado State.

Swingman Jonathan Tavernari (10.1 ppg, 5.0 rebounds per game) had 21 points and 11 boards in BYU's 94-60 home win over the Rams in the teams' last meeting Feb. 11.

Colorado State's Andy Ogide is averaging 9.0 points in two career games against BYU, but 15.0 and 6.3 rebounds in his last three games heading into this contest.

The 6-foot-9 Ogide, the team's top returning scorer after averaging 10.2 points last season, had 13 in the Rams' most recent contest, a 70-48 win over Air Force last Saturday.

Freshman Dorian Green is averaging a team-leading 13.5 points, but was held to nine on 2-of-7 shooting against the Falcons.

Colorado State, 1-5 on the road this season, has lost seven straight against Top 25 opponents since beating then-No. 25 Air Force 60-48 during the 2004 Mountain West tournament.