6 BYU seniors may be playing their final game at home

PROVO -- Barring any early March meltdown by the BYU basketball team that might result in a National Invitational Tournament home game, tonight's BYU-Utah matchup will be the final Marriott Center appearance for a half-dozen Cougar seniors.

And they would like nothing better than to conclude their home careers with something that only one of them has done only once before -- to beat the Utes.

"I've only beat them once -- it's not like I've had too many highlights," said senior starting forward Mark Bigelow, who fondly remembers the Cougars coming from more than 20 points down to post a 63-61 home victory on Feb. 23, 2002.

He was serving his LDS Church mission during the other two recent Cougar victories -- in the 2000 Mountain West Conference tournament and in the Marriott Center in late January 2001.

Besides comprising three-fifths of the Cougars' starting lineup, Bigelow and his fellow seniors account for nearly two-thirds of BYU's scoring attack.

Joining Bigelow and his 13.7-point scoring average are starting center Rafael Araujo (18.4 ppg), starting point guard Luiz Lemes (7.8 ppg), reserve guard Kevin Woodberry (5.1 ppg) and reserve forward- center Jake Shoff (2.5 ppg).

Ricky Bower, a top reserve guard as a junior last year, was unable to complete his senior season due to a back injury.

"This is their last game at home, and I'm sure it has special significance to them," said BYU head coach Steve Cleveland. "All of them have had a different role in this program."

For Araujo, it seems to him only a few days ago that he was a junior-college transfer at the start of his junior year, being welcomed to BYU and becoming acquainted with new teammates. It's a big deal for me," said the 6-foot-11 Sao Paulo native of his upcoming graduation," so I can prove to my dad in Brazil and to my mom that I continued in school and played sports and that I can be successful."

Cleveland is hoping his upperclassmen downplay all the pregame pageantry, avoid home-finale distractions and remain focused on the game.

"What the seniors would like most of all is not so much the pregame celebration," he said, "but the postgame celebration because they won."

E-mail: taylor@desnews.com

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