PROVO -- In front of the largest home crowd of the season, BYU recorded another home victory as the Cougars beat UNLV 74-48 on the back of BYU's fantastic juniors -- Trent Plaisted and Lee Cummard. Plaisted scored a game-high 22 points, while Cummard was not far behind with 18 points of his own. BYU improved to 20-5 on the season, which is the Cougars' third consecutive 20-win season.
BYU also tied the program record with its 44th straight home win. The Cougars have not lost in the Marriott Center since Nov. 18, 2005.
"The atmosphere was as good as it gets tonight," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "We had a good crowd and a great student section, and that provided a lift for us offensively."
The Cougars also improved to 9-1 in Mountain West Conference action as they avenged their only conference loss of the season that came at the hands of the Rebels in Las Vegas. UNLV fell to 8-3 in the conference this season (19-6 overall).
In front a crowd of over 22,000, the energy in the arena started off on a high note. BYU's Plaisted scored the first points of the game on a lay up then made the following free throw to complete the three-point play and help his team jump out on top.
The Cougars kept moving the ball well and created an early 7-2 lead with 15:52 on the clock as Lee Cummard hit a shot from beyond the arc. The Cougars helped themselves to this lead as they only allowed the Rebels to hit on one of their first seven attempts from the field.
UNLV did not let down early as the Cougars put the pressure on. UNLV pulled to within one over the next minute to pull the score to 7-6. Over the next three and half minutes BYU went on another run of 7-4 as the Cougars went up 14-10 with 11:29 left in the first half.
BYU continued to build upon its lead as Plaisted had a dunk at the 8:48 mark that ignited the crowd and helped jump start the Cougars to a 9-0 run over the next 2:02. This run included Jonathan Tavernari's first made three-pointer of the game at the 7:10 mark to give the Cougars their first double-digit lead of the game. By the end of the Cougars' nine-point run, they were up 26-13.
UNLV was able to keep cutting back into the Cougars' lead as the Rebels pulled down eight first-half offensive rebounds and saw an immediate impact from Troy Cage, who came off the bench to score eight first-half points for his team.
The Cougars' defense proved to be too much as they intercepted six first-half steals, made four blocks and forced nine turnovers. BYU converted 16 points off of the UNLV offensive mishaps.
"I was really pleased with our effort defensively tonight," Rose said. "We did a good job challenging shots and staying with our defensive assignments. Strong defense and rebounding were two keys to this game."
Another highlight of the first half for BYU came at the 1:40 mark as Tavernari was near the low block with his back to the basket and his defender on him tight. He hit a cutting Cummard with a no-look pass for the easy lay up. The Cummard basket put BYU up 35-21.
The Cougars went into the locker room on the back of Cummard, who finished the half hitting a free throw to complete a three-point play with half a second left to send BYU into the break up 39-23. The Cougars saw even first-half scoring throughout their roster as they had six players with five or more points.
BYU kept the pressure up on both ends of the court early in the second half, and a key play came at the 15:25 mark as Jimmer Fredette hit a cutting Plaisted for an alley-oop dunk to put the Cougars up 45-27.
Over the next 8:24 the Cougars extended their lead to 60-38. Shortly after that, BYU began to apply shutdown defense as the Cougars held the Rebels off the scoreboard from the 9:21 mark until 4:42 left in the game -- a span of 4:39.
The Cougars cruised to a victory from there with a 74-48 win in a game that BYU lead from wire-to-wire. The 48 points that BYU held UNLV to ties the Rebels' season low in scoring this season.
UNLV's leading scorer in the game was Cage, who came off the bench for 12 points. The Cougar defense held the Rebels' top scorer, Wink Adams, to only nine points.
BYU also saw a big boost from Tavernari, who contributed in many ways for the Cougars as he had seven rebounds, six points, four assists and two blocks. Fredette also came in to contribute with 24 minutes for the Cougars and finished the game with nine points and four assists.
BYU will next be in action on Wednesday at 8 p.m. as Utah comes to the Marriott Center. The game will be televised live on the Mtn.
CLICK HERE for postgame notes and quotes.
CLICK HERE to view slideshow of BYU's win over UNLV.
Official Basketball Box Score
UNLV vs BYU Cougars
02/16/08 7:05 p.m. at Marriott Center, Provo, Utah
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VISITORS: UNLV 19-6, 8-3 MWC
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
15 BAILEY, Corey....... f 5-11 0-1 0-0 1 2 3 1 10 2 2 1 1 28
45 DARGER, Joe......... f 3-5 2-2 1-2 0 2 2 5 9 0 0 0 0 27
01 ADAMS, Wink......... g 2-14 1-2 4-4 0 3 3 2 9 3 1 0 2 34
24 ROUGEAU, Rene....... g 3-11 0-0 0-1 2 4 6 4 6 1 2 0 2 21
31 TERRY, Curtis....... g 2-10 0-2 2-3 1 3 4 2 6 2 4 0 0 32
00 RUTLEDGE, Mareceo... 1-1 0-0 2-4 1 0 1 2 4 0 2 0 0 13
05 WALLACE, Kendall.... 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 1 0 0 1 0 1 10
10 HOFFMAN, Scott...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
12 CAGE, Troy.......... 2-7 0-1 0-0 6 6 12 0 4 2 3 0 2 21
34 SHAW, Matt.......... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 5 0 0 0 0 0 13
TEAM................ 2 2
Totals.............. 18-62 3-8 9-14 13 25 38 22 48 10 15 1 8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-30 33.3% 2nd Half: 8-32 25.0% Game: 29.0% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-5 40.0% 2nd Half: 1-3 33.3% Game: 37.5% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 1-2 50.0% 2nd Half: 8-12 66.7% Game: 64.3% 1
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HOME TEAM: BYU Cougars 20-5, 9-1 MWC
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
30 CUMMARD, Lee........ f 7-10 2-3 2-3 0 3 3 3 18 1 3 2 2 32
45 TAVERNARI, Jonathan. f 2-6 2-2 0-0 0 7 7 1 6 4 0 2 1 26
44 PLAISTED, Trent..... c 8-17 0-0 6-8 3 4 7 2 22 2 3 1 2 29
20 BURGESS, Sam........ g 2-6 1-4 2-2 1 2 3 3 7 1 0 0 2 23
24 MURDOCK, Ben........ g 0-2 0-1 1-2 0 4 4 3 1 1 1 0 0 28
01 LOYD, JR., Michael.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 2 2 0 1 8
05 ROSE, Archie........ 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 2
14 MARTINEAU, Nick..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3
32 FREDETTE, Jimmer.... 2-6 0-1 5-6 1 2 3 0 9 4 1 0 1 24
41 COLLINSWORTH, Chris. 2-6 0-2 1-3 3 6 9 1 5 0 1 1 1 15
54 MILES, Chris........ 3-4 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 4 6 0 0 2 0 10
TEAM................ 1 4 5
Totals.............. 26-57 5-13 17-26 11 35 46 17 74 15 14 8 10 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-32 43.8% 2nd Half: 12-25 48.0% Game: 45.6% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-9 44.4% 2nd Half: 1-4 25.0% Game: 38.5% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 7-11 63.6% 2nd Half: 10-15 66.7% Game: 65.4% 4
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Officials: Mark Reischling, Bob Staffen, Jim Stupin
Technical fouls: UNLV-None. BYU Cougars-None.
Attendance: 22580
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
UNLV.......................... 23 25 - 48
BYU Cougars................... 39 35 - 74
Attendance is season high.
Points in the paint-LV 26,BY 42. Points off turnovers-LV 12,BY 24.
2nd chance points-LV 6,BY 16. Fast break points-LV 4,BY 10.
Bench points-LV 8,BY 20. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-0 times.
Last FG-LV 2nd-01:43, BY 2nd-01:24.
Largest lead-LV None, BY by 29 2nd-06:00.