POSTGAME NOTES
BYU vs. Long Beach State
Nov. 14, 2008
-BYU’s first game of the year, head coach Dave Rose started senior standout and reigning MWC Player of the Year, Lee Cummard, junior who played in all 35 games and started 29 last season, sophomore Jackson Emery who returned from an LDS mission this summer, junior Chris Miles who played 34 out of 35 games last season and junior Lamont Morgan, Jr., who redshirted last season after transferring from Saddleback Community College.
-Wooden Award candidate Cummard dominated the season opener scoring the most points in a single game since Russell Larson in 1993 with 36. He shares the eighth highest singe-game point total with eight other Cougars. The last time an individual Cougar scored more than 30 points was Keena Young at UNLV in 2007, where he scored 34 points.
-Tavernari started off the Cougar points with a dunk to wow the crowd and was second in scoring points for the Cougars on the night with 19.
-BYU is now 74-33 in all-time season openers.
-The Cougars maintain the nation’s longest home winning streak at 48 games.
-Back-to-back three pointers and rapid fire shooting produced 22 of the first 31 points from All-America candidate Lee Cummard. He broke his career first-half high-point total of 17 points set last season with 22 points, making 9-of-10 from the field, 3-of-3 from three, with six rebounds and two blocks in the first half. The first 10 points in the second half were also scored by Cummard.
-This win brings the BYU home record to 111-10 over the last eight seasons.
-BYU now leads the overall series record against the Long Beach State 49ers 5-4. BYU improves its home record against LBSU to 4-1. Under Coach Dave Rose, BYU has never lost to Long Beach State (2-0).
- BYU is 2-2 in season openers under the tutelage of head coach Dave Rose.
-Cummard surpassed his career high of 27 points achieved against Lamar in 2008 with 36 points, 11 rebounds and 7-for-7 free throws on the night.
-With 12 minutes to go in the game, Jackson Emery gave the Cougars their second lead of the game with an and-one situation. Those three points were his first since the 2005-06 season as he has been in Mexico serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
-The Cougars played in front of 15,753 fans. Last season’s home opener brought in 12,153 patrons to the Marriott Center.
-During pregame introductions, the 2008 Mountain West Conference Championship banner was unveiled at the Marriott Center as Cougar fans went wild. The Cougars won the 2007-08 regular season title with a 14-2 conference record. They have won back-to-back MWC titles.
- After starting the game 1-for-7 at the free throw line, BYU made their last 10 free throws.
-In the last meeting with LBSU, BYU put away the 49ers 74-34 on Nov. 10, 2007.
POSTGAME QUOTES
BYU Head Coach Dave Rose
“I’m really proud of our players as a group. We did a lot of good things as a team.”
“We put ourselves in a difficult situation in the first half. We were rushing and everything was in a hurry. We had some nice shots but we were playing at their pace.”
“We have a lot of work to do but I’m proud of our players. It’s a learning process. Hopefully on Tuesday we will be a better team.”
“The score was a manageable number at the half. We played better in the second half.”
“Jackson played really well defensively considering it’s his first game in quite a few months.”
Long Beach State Head Coach Dan Monson
“For having an inexperienced team, we played pretty well. But it’s a double-edged sword because their experience wore us down.”
“We didn’t have an answer for Cummard. He was not only the best player in the Mountain West Conference last year, he was one of the best players in the nation.”
“I told my team to judge themselves off their defense. We consistently didn’t guard them well enough. We allowed Cummard and Tavernari to get into a flow and when your best two players are in a flow, it’s a problem.”
“They pressured us a little bit more [in the second half] and we didn’t respond. They’re more experienced and they didn’t panic when they were down. They made plays down the stretch and we didn’t.”