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Cummard, Plaisted power BYU past Portland

Dec 2, 2007 - 6:44 AM PORTLAND, Oregon (Ticker) -- After two tough tests in the previous week, Brigham Young had no problem with lowly Portland.

Lee Cummard had 18 points and Trent Plaisted added 16 as No. 23 BYU cruised past the Pilots, 78-54, on Saturday.

The Cougars took down then-No. 6 Louisville and threatened - but lost to - No. 2 North Carolina last weekend. The strong play helped BYU move into the top-25 for the second consecutive season, marking the first time since the 1980-81 and 1981-82 seasons that the Cougars were ranked in two straight campaigns.

"I'm really proud of our players," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "We had really great practices this week as far as effort is concerned, but we didn't execute nearly as well as we usually do. Tonight we came out and executed well."

BYU (6-1) did not disappoint against Portland, as it led from start to finish. The Cougars led by 14 points at the half and used a 17-2 run after intermission to take their biggest lead at 52-23 with 15:40 to play.

"In the second half, especially the first 10 minutes, we were really good, not only in terms of focus and energy, but our execution," Rose said.

The Pilots, who shot 36 percent (21-of-58) from the field, closed to within 57-42 with under 12 minutes to play, but BYU answered with a 13-2 spurt to push the lead back up to 26 with 8:55 remaining.

Cummard and Plaisted combined to shoot 13-of-17 from the field for BYU, which outrebounded Portland, 41-27, and shot 53 percent (30-of-57) from the floor for the game.

Portland shot just 32 percent (9-of-28) from the field in the first half, including 1-of-10 3-pointers, as it fell behind, 35-21 at the break.

Robin Smeulders had 12 points to lead Portland (2-6), which has lost three straight.

"That was our fourth game in eight days and we knew that we had our work cut out for us tonight," Portland coach Eric Reveno said. "It was a good opportunity to play a well-coached, top-25 program. We need to learn from these opportunities and continue to improve in preparation for our West Coast Conference season."