Game 4 - Cougars to Face Rice in Basketball Travelers

GAME TWO OF BASKETBALL TRAVELERS ON FRIDAY

BYU (3-0) enters day two of the Basketball Travelers Invitational on Friday with a game against Rice at 8:30 p.m. in the Marriot Center. The Cougars are coming off a 74-41 victory against North Florida and Rice defeated Cal Poly 81-76 in its opening game of the Basketball Travelers Invitation. Also on Friday Cal Poly will take on North Florida at 6 p.m.

BASKETBALL TRAVELERS INVITATIONAL

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008

5 p.m. Rice 81, Cal Poly 76

7:30 p.m. BYU 74, North Florida 41

Friday, Nov. 21, 2008

6 p.m. Cal Poly vs. North Florida

8:30 p.m. Rice at BYU

Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008

6 p.m. North Florida vs. Rice

8:30 p.m. Cal Poly at BYU

LOOKING AT RICE

Rice is 0-1 to open the 2008-09 season after losing to Portland State, 78-74. Rice led Portland State 38-33 at the half but was outscored 45-38 in the second half. Cory Pflieger scored 17 points to lead Rice while Aleks Perka added 15 points and nine rebounds and Rodney Foster scored eight points and dished out nine assists. Ben Braun is in his first season as the coach of the Owls. He has a career record of 552-390 with stints at Siena Heights, Eastern Michigan and California.

RICE’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Pos.#NameHt. Wt.Yr. PPGRPG

F43Aleks Perka6-7205Sr.11.77.5

C15Trey Stanton6-10230So.8.03.0

G4Connor Frizzelle6-1180Fr.8.53.5

G21Rodney Foster6-1185Sr.12.03.0

G32Cory Pflieger6-2185Jr.17.03.5

SERIES NOTES

This will be the seventh meeting between Rice and BYU. The Cougars lead 4-2 and have won the last two meetings, including a 96-56 victory in the Marriott Center on Nov. 30, 2002. BYU won the first two meetings of the series before dropping the next two, one at home and one on the road. The Cougars are 3-1 all-time in Provo against Rice.

RECORD WATCH

With five threes against North Florida, Jonathan Tavernari has made at least one three-pointer in 19 consecutive games, putting him three games from tying Mark Bigelow’s school record of 22 straight games with a trey (over two seasons; 1998-99 and 2001-02). In addition, Jonthan Tavernari has passed Terrell Lyday for fourth place on BYU’s career list for three-point attempts with 338. His 127 made threes tie him with Lyday for fourth place in career treys.

With a perfect 10-for-10 start from the line through two games in the 2008-09 season Lee Cummard has made 20 consecutive free throws dating back to the Colorado State game at the 2008 MWC Tournament. The BYU record for consecutive made free throws made is 32 in a row by Michael Smith.

HOME WINNING STREAK

With a 74-41 victory over North Florida in the opener of the Basketball Travelers Invitational, BYU has won a school-record 49 straight games in the Marriott Center, which also ranks first nationally. The Cougars set the school record with their 67-59 win over Utah in the Marriott Center on Feb. 20, their 45th straight home win. The Cougars were 16-0 at home last year and won 17 home games the prior season after going 14-1 at home in 2005-06. BYU’s last home loss was in the 2005-06 season opener against Loyola Marymount. BYU has since won 24 straight over nonconference opponents and 24 consecutive over MWC foes. BYU’s last league loss at home was its season finale in 2005 to UNLV. BYU is 420-116 (.783) all-time in the Marriott Center, and Cougar head coach Dave Rose is 48-1. Prior to the current streak, BYU’s longest homecourt victory streak was 44 games from Feb 19, 2000 to Jan 16, 2003.

1,000-POINT CLUB

Including a season-high performance with 36 against Long Beach State, Lee Cummard now has 61 total points for the season and 1,069 for his career. He is now one-point ahead of Keena Young in the BYU 1,000-point club and 15 points behind Mel Hutchins.