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Provo • Once again, the BYU Cougars will be at less than full strength when they play a college basketball exhibition game on Saturday.
The Cougars, who beat Arizona Christian 103-75 last week with a big second half, play host to the Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks at 7:30 p.m. at the Marriott Center.
The Nanooks, members of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, were scheduled to play at Nevada on Friday night. They went 7-19 last season and are picked to finish sixth in the GNAC this season in coach Mick Durham's fifth year.
They are led by six seniors, including preseason all-GNAC picks Ashton Edwards, Almir Hadzisehovic and Joe Slocum. Edwards averaged 14.2 points per game last season, highest on the team.
BYU coach Dave Rose said he's been so concerned with the development of his own team, progress slowed by a plethora of nagging injuries, that he hadn't had much time as of Thursday night to watch film of Saturday night's opponent.
"I have just seen a couple clips and things," he said. "They really share the ball. It is a good shooting team. They play at a pretty good pace, too, but I don't know a lot about them. … I am kind of worried about our guys and concerned about how we are going to kind of take a step from last week to this week and hopefully put two good, consistent halves together, rebound the ball better, and get better defensively, which are big keys for us."
Playing without stars Kyle Collinsworth and Chase Fischer — who are expected to play Saturday — the Cougars were tied with the Firestorm 42-42 at halftime before breaking away in the second half.
Against Alaska Fairbanks, they will be without freshman guard Jordan Chatman (ankle) and likely without center Corbin Kaufusi (hamstring) and forwards Kyle Davis (ankle) and Jamal Aytes (ankle).
Rose said it will be a good opportunity for freshmen such as Braiden Shaw, Jakob Hartsock, Nick Emery and Zac Seljaas to show what they can do.
"What we need to do is find our core guys," he said. "We've got a group of experienced guys, and we've got a lot of young guys who have to become part of us, and our core, and what we are going to do, and who we play with. So, the guys who get to play early are probably the guys who have an advantage. We will see."
Saturday's game concludes BYU's exhibition season. The Cougars will play host to Utah Valley University next Friday in their regular-season opener at the Marriott Center.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Alaska Fairbanks at BYU
P Saturday,7:30 p.m.
TV • BYUtv