COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA TOURNAMENT : Williams Helps Cut BYU to Size : West Regional: Six-foot-10 center outplays 7-6 freshman Bradley, scoring 24 points as Arizona advances, 76-61.

Shawn Bradley, Brigham Young’s 7-foot-6 freshman center, can dominate a game on defense. But Arizona’s 6-10 Brian Williams played a bit taller than Bradley on Saturday.

Williams scored a game-high 24 points--even dunking over Bradley once--and the Wildcats beat Brigham Young, 76-61, before 14,869 in the second round of the NCAA West Regional at the University of Utah’s Jon Huntsman Center.

The dominance of Bradley, who set an NCAA record for freshmen this season with 177 blocked shots, was evident in the first half, when he blocked two shots and altered the course of several others.

Bradley’s defense had a lot to do with No. 2-seeded and No. 8-ranked Arizona’s shooting only 33% to lead, 30-27, at halftime.

But Williams and his teammates, spurred by freshman guard Khalid Reeves, surged in the second half.

And Bradley and the rest of the No. 10-seeded and unranked Cougars (21-13) seemed to wilt.

After Bradley made an eight-foot jump shot in the lane to give the Cougars their only lead of the game at 36-35 with 15:05 left to play, Arizona (28-6) took over.

Ed Stokes made a three-point play, Sean Rooks sank two free throws and Williams made an eight-footer in the lane on an assist from Reeves, who then made a basket in the lane. Suddenly, Arizona had a 9-0 run and a 44-36 lead with 11:48 to go.

With 9:29 remaining, Williams made a layup, was fouled by Bradley and made the free throw, giving the Wildcats a 47-40 lead.

Bradley left the game with his third foul after that play, and while he was gone, Arizona increased its lead to 50-42.

When Bradley returned with about eight minutes to play, it was too late.

Shortly after that, Williams dunked over Bradley after getting a pass from Reeves, and the Wildcats led, 56-42.

Williams raised a fist in exultation after his dunk. Bradley looked crestfallen.

BYU’s effort to get back in the game by fouling was thwarted when Arizona made 14 of 18 free throws in the last 5 1/2 minutes.

Besides scoring 24 points, Williams finished with game highs of 11 rebounds and three blocked shots. Reeves had 11 points and five assists.

Bradley, who was playing his last game before going on a two-year religious mission in June, didn’t block a shot after blocking two in the first half and fouled out of the game with 5:39 to go. He had 10 points and nine rebounds.

Nathan Call led the Cougars with 12 points and seven assists.

Bradley called Williams “a great player and a great guy” and said it was an honor to play against someone “I’ve looked up to for a while.”

He said he was excited about his religious mission, but that he would miss his teammates, especially those who would no longer be playing with the Cougars when he returns to school.

Williams said he was inspired “a little bit” against Bradley because “he has a great ability to disrupt a game.

“But so do the guys I play against in practice. That helps you get adjusted to things like that.”

Olson agreed with Williams that Reeves did a good job of penetrating and finding Williams “on dish-backs.”

“He did a great job defensively, ignited the fast break a little bit and penetrated and found the big guy for the big pass,” Olson said.

Olson was asked if he felt comfortable about going to the West Regional semifinals in Seattle, where the Wildcats will face Seton Hall Thursday and could wind up meeting top-ranked, unbeaten Nevada Las Vegas for the right to go to the Final Four.

“We feel good about ourselves and the way we we’re playing,” Olson said. “We feel good about going to Seattle.”

He added that Arizona expects some crowd support there because the “Northwest is Pac-10 oriented.”

BYU Coach Roger Reid said that Arizona, which improved its shooting to 57.1% in the second half, “just wore us down.”