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No Senior Night for BYU in home finale because Cougars have no seniors

Gonzaga guard Josh Perkins (13) goes to the basket as BYU guard TJ Haws (30) defends in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018, in Provo, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Provo • For the second straight year, BYU played its final regular-season home game on Saturday night without any seniors on the floor.

Hence, there was no Senior Night at the Marriott Center as the Cougars hosted No. 6 Gonzaga.

This year, there are no seniors on the entire roster. Last year, Kyle Davis and LJ Rose were honored before the game, but didn’t play because they were both injured.

Theoretically, BYU could have had five seniors playing Saturday, but Jamal Aytes, Davin Guinn and Corbin Kaufusi — all juniors last year — chose to leave the program at the conclusion of the 2016-17 season. Aytes moved on to Southern Utah University as a graduate transfer, Guinn went to law school and Kaufusi decided to focus on football full time.

Cory Calvert and Jake Toolson left the program and eventually landed at Utah Valley University. Both would have been part of this senior class if they had stayed at BYU and not redshirted somewhere along the way.

Attendance slightly down

Saturday’s game was a sellout (18,987), but it wasn’t enough to push BYU past Arizona for top attendance in the West.

The Cougars entered the game ranked No. 19 in attendance nationally, averaging 13,914 per game. Arizona is averaging 14,404.

BYU coach Dave Rose believes attendance was down a bit this year because the Cougars played several late games with 9 p.m. tipoffs.

It was the fifth time this season that attendance surpassed 16,000. The Cougars also drew more than 16,000 fans against Portland, Pacific, Utah and Saint Mary’s.

Jesse Wade sighting

Former Davis High star Jesse Wade, a freshman returned missionary on Gonzaga’s roster, entered the game in the first half and promptly fired up a 3-pointer, which missed. The miss ended a streak of four straight triples for the Zags.

Wade had appeared in just one of the Zags’ eight previous games. Gonzaga officials did not make him available for an interview before either of the games against BYU this season.

Briefly

New LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson attended the game and sat in the first row behind the scorer’s table. … The Cougars chose to wear their royal blue jerseys, normally reserved for road games or games against Utah. Gonzaga wore its white home jerseys.. … Officials Saturday were Verne Harris, Eric Curry and Kevin Brill. … BYU started Luke Worthington, Elijah Bryant, Jahshire Hardnett, Yoeli Childs and TJ Haws for the seventh straight game. Haws tweaked his ankle in Thursday’s 72-60 win over Portland but was able to finish that game and start against the Bulldogs. … Before the game, Gonzaga players gathered in the tunnel outside the main arena and had some fun with Haws’ “Shut the eff up,” comment from the Portland game by repeating it to themselves several times.