ARAUJO, BYU SHOOT DOWN USC BIG CENTER DOMINATES, FRUSTRATES TROJANS BYU 85, USC 61.

Byline: Jason Franchuk Special to the Daily News

PROVO, Utah - The game was about 12 minutes old when the Brigham Young students began to heckle USC for a fault that was all too painful and prominent for the Trojans.

``You can't stop him,'' they chanted in praise of Rafael Araujo, BYU's 6-foot-11 center who was too much for the visitors in a 85-61 victory at Marriott Center on Saturday night.

Araujo had 18 points in the first half, after which BYU led 45-31. During a two-minute, 15-second stretch midway through the first 20 minutes, Araujo scored 10 points.

``He's an unbelievable player,'' USC coach Henry Bibby said. ``He's too quick, too fast.''

His dominance certainly frustrated Bibby, who was reprimanded with a technical foul nearly five minutes into the game. He said he ``could not remember'' what irritated him enough to warrant the whistle, but three-second violations, or the lack of them being called, was a concern at that point. Nonetheless, Bibby left impressed with Araujo and BYU.

``That's not a mid-major team there,'' Bibby said. ``They're probably playing as well as any team in the country right now.''

Araujo hardly was the lone concern for USC (3-3), which was beaten by a barrage of 3-pointers as well. USC made five of 20 and BYU 12 of 24, including eight in the first half. BYU (6-1), which suffered its only loss against Pacific-10 Conference member California, trailed 21-15 after a Derrick Craven layup and the Trojans had done enough to keep the crowd of 15,688 from running them out of a tough arena for visitors.

BYU had a 44-game winning streak here before the run was halted last year by Utah.

The crowd came alive - not coincidentally at the same time as Araujo and the 3-point shooters. He made two free throws, and then a layup. Mark Bigelow followed with a 3-pointer, and the Cougars had a 19-1 run that concluded with two free throws by Kevin Woodberry at the 4:54 mark.

USC was led by Rodrick Stewart, who had 14 points.

USC looked competitive to start the second half, trading baskets and making 3-pointers. Stewart had a basket that cut the deficit to 48-37. Only Araujo, who finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds, came to BYU's aid again - this time from the 3-point arc. He made his second 3-pointer with 16:35 left for a 51-37 lead, and BYU never looked back. It's lead never shrunk to single digits.

``This was a good, humbling experience for the kids,'' Bibby said. ``But we needed that. Hopefully we can learn from it.''