First-half Surge Lifts Cougars

Click to watch the video.

PROVO -- A late first-half scoring surge allowed the BYU men’s basketball team to build enough of a cushion on its way to a 73-61 victory over the visiting TCU Horned Frogs Tuesday night at the Marriott Center.

The Cougars improve to 14-2 overall on the season and 2-0 in MWC play. The Frogs, coming off a big victory Saturday night over UNLV, fall to 11-6 overall and 2-1 in conference.

“We were really dialed in defensively,” BYU head coach Dave Rose said. “They had some good looks, but fortunately they missed some as well. In the second half they sent more guys to the offensive glass and got more second-chance shots.”

BYU ended the game shooting 48 percent by going 28-of-58 from the field, but managed just 4-of-18 from 3-point range and 0-for-8 in the second half.

The Cougars were led by Lee Cummard’s 22 points as he went 10-of-15 from the field and recorded seven rebounds on the night. Fellow captain Jonathan Tavernari scored 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting and had two steals on the night that led to easy transition buckets.

Jackson Emery and Jimmer Fredette scored 11 points apiece and had four and six assists, respectively, helping the Cougars to 18 assists overall to the Frogs’ nine. Senior Archie Rose contributed eight points, as well.

“We have a handful of players that will get an opportunity,” Rose said. “Archie had a good matchup, playing well and taking advantage of the minutes he played.”

TCU was able to improve their second-half shooting percentage to 50 percent after going 30 percent in the first half. Kevin Langford led the Frogs with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting, with Edvinas Ruzgas and Zvonko Buljan each contributing 10 points. Jason Ebie also poured in nine points on the evening for TCU.

The Frogs also managed to cut back on turnovers in the second half as they had just two in the latter compared to nine in the opening half.

“When we have league games, we need to crank it up defensively,” Rose said. “We need to do a better job of guarding and not fouling.”

Cummard helped the Cougars maintain the lead throughout the second half after the Cougars built a 42-21 halftime margin, scoring eight points in the first 10 minutes of the second half with Rose pouring in two buckets.

Sloppy defense by the Cougars allowed Langford to score several easy buckets in the paint and Buljan and Ruzgas to convert three-pointers on various occasions in the latter half.

In the first half, the Frogs got behind early with a pair of turnovers as the Cougars raced to a quick 9-4 lead. A Fredette trey and Gavin MacGregor tip-in forced a TCU timeout up 14-4.

Fredette then came up with a steal and raced down the court for an easy layup, while Archie Rose got into the action by converting a few pairs of free throws to build the Cougar lead up to 22-10 midway through the first half.

The Cougars shot 50 percent from the field in the first half on 16-of-32 shooting and 4-of-10 from 3-point range. Tavernari led the team with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting followed by Cummard with ten points. Fredette and Emery also scored seven points apiece.

TCU shot 30 percent in the first half on 8-of-26 shooting, managing to go 2-for-13 from 3-point range and committing nine turnovers. Ruzgas led the Frogs with seven points in the opening half.

“We were executing well on defense and, for the most part, we just got after it the entire game,” Cummard said.

BYU will next play Saturday afternoon at New Mexico. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. MT on VERSUS.

CLICK HERE for postgame notes and quotes.

Official Basketball Box Score
TCU Horned Frogs vs BYU Cougars
1/13/09 8:05 pm at Marriott Center, Provo, Utah
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VISITORS: TCU Horned Frogs 11-6, 2-1 MWC
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
13 RUZGAS, Edvinas..... f  4-9    2-7    0-0    1  2  3   2  10  1  0  0  0  29
32 LANGFORD, Kevin..... f  6-10   0-1    2-3    3  3  6   3  14  0  4  0  0  31
01 BULJAN, Zvonko...... c  4-10   1-3    1-2    2 10 12   4  10  2  2  0  1  32
03 EBIE, Jason......... g  3-5    0-0    3-5    0  2  2   3   9  3  1  0  0  35
22 MITCHEM, Keion...... g  2-7    1-3    1-2    0  1  1   3   6  0  1  0  0  18
05 MOSS, Ronnie........    1-7    0-2    3-5    0  3  3   2   5  3  1  0  1  28
12 LANCON, Logan.......    0-2    0-1    0-0    0  1  1   0   0  0  1  0  0  10
24 BUTLER, Kevin.......    0-1    0-1    0-2    2  2  4   0   0  0  1  0  0   9
42 ORTIZ, John.........    2-3    2-3    1-2    0  0  0   2   7  0  0  0  0   8
   TEAM................                         1  1  2
   Totals..............   22-54   6-21  11-21   9 25 34  19  61  9 11  0  2 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half:  8-26 30.8%   2nd Half: 14-28 50.0%   Game: 40.7%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  2-13 15.4%   2nd Half:  4-8  50.0%   Game: 28.6%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  3-6  50.0%   2nd Half:  8-15 53.3%   Game: 52.4%    5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOME TEAM: BYU Cougars 14-2, 2-0 MWC
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
30 CUMMARD, Lee........ f 10-15   0-2    2-2    1  6  7   1  22  3  0  0  1  36
45 TAVERNARI, Jonathan. f  6-13   2-7    0-0    0  2  2   3  14  1  1  1  2  26
54 MILES, Chris........ c  1-3    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   2   2  2  1  1  0  25
04 EMERY, Jackson...... g  4-6    1-3    2-4    0  5  5   2  11  4  1  1  1  28
32 FREDETTE, Jimmer.... g  4-11   1-4    2-2    1  3  4   4  11  6  3  0  1  30
01 ABOUO, Charles......    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  0  0  0  0   5
02 MORGAN, JR., Lamont.    0-2    0-1    1-3    2  3  5   2   1  1  1  0  0  20
05 ROSE, Archie........    1-3    0-1    6-6    2  2  4   3   8  1  1  0  0  18
53 MACGREGOR, Gavin....    2-5    0-0    0-2    2  3  5   3   4  0  0  0  0  12
   TEAM................                         2  3  5
   Totals..............   28-58   4-18  13-19  10 28 38  21  73 18  8  3  5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 16-32 50.0%   2nd Half: 12-26 46.2%   Game: 48.3%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  4-10 40.0%   2nd Half:  0-8   0.0%   Game: 22.2%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  6-9  66.7%   2nd Half:  7-10 70.0%   Game: 68.4%    1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Officials: Tom O'Neill, Verne Harris, Winston Stith
Technical fouls: TCU Horned Frogs-None. BYU Cougars-None.
Attendance: 11065
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
TCU Horned Frogs..............   21   40  -   61
BYU Cougars...................   42   31  -   73
Points in the paint-TC 27,BY 36. Points off turnovers-TC 7,BY 13.
2nd chance points-TC 9,BY 13. Fast break points-TC 3,BY 14.
Bench points-TC 12,BY 13. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-0 times.
Last FG-TC 2nd-00:51, BY 2nd-01:45.
Largest lead-TC None, BY by 24 2nd-18:27.