Fresno State Athletics
Men's Basketball Holds off Brigham Young
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
February 18, 1999
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Courtney Alexander scored 17 points, including four free throws in the final 1:02 of the game, to lead Fresno State to an 80-71 Western Athletic Conference victory against Brigham Young University on Thursday night.
Fresno State (18-9 overall, 7-4 WAC) had five players in double figures, including Terrance Roberson with 14 and Demetrius Porter with 13.
Brigham Young (10-13, 5-6) was led by freshman Mark Bigelow, who scored a game-high 23 and had 11 rebounds. Nathan Cooper and Michael Vranes each added 15 for the Cougars.
Fresno State made just 31 percent of its shots in the second half and was outrebounded 43-32 but forced 29 turnovers to hold off the Cougars.
After five points by Bigelow in the first 1:10 of the game, Fresno State ran off 13 straight points to take the lead. Roberson buried a pair of threes and Alexander hit another three in a span of less than a minute to spark that run.
Fresno led by as many as 18 points in the first half before BYU came back to close within eight points. But Roberson hit another three at the buzzer for a 52-41 halftime lead.
Brigham Young cut the lead to five points twice in the second half, the last time at 66-61 with just under nine minutes left in the game. But Roberson's first basket of the second half and a bucket by Melvin Ely upped the margin to nine points.
BYU battled back in the final minutes, trimming the lead to 74-71 with 1:26 left in the game on consecutive threes by Bigelow and Copper.
But Alexander made four of eight free throws in the final 1:02 and Chris Herren added two from the line to seal the victory.
