Cummard and Co. Set Tourney Records

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LAS -- The No. 23 BYU men's basketball team (26-6, 14-2) earned an record-setting 89-62 win over Colorado State (6-25, 0-16) in the first quarterfinal game of the 2008 Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Championship Thursday. The regular-season champion Cougars garnered the victory in the Thomas & Mack Center thanks to double-digit performances from five different scorers.

BYU set MWC Tournament records for largest margin of victory (27 points) and highest field-goal percentage (65.2 percent) in the contest. Co-MWC Player of the Year Lee Cummard led all scorers with 18 points in the game. He was followed by senior Sam Burgess with 13, sophomore Jonathan Tavernari and freshman Chris Collinsworth with 12 apiece, and senior Trent Plaisted with 11. Collinsworth added 10 rebounds for the first double-double game of his career while his 12 points and three assists were also personal bests.

"It was a very competitive game, especially the first half," BYU head coach Dave Rose said. "CSU played with a lot of confidence and ran good sets. The second half we did a better job of getting to their shooters and were able to get out in the break to score some points in transition. It was just a very competitive game, and we're happy to be able to move on."

The first basket of the afternoon was a foreshadowing three-pointer from Tavernari from the left corner. He also scored the next Cougar bucket thanks to a smooth entry pass from Burgess. The No. 9-seeded Rams did not back down from the top-seeded Cougars in the first minutes, though. At the first media timeout CSU led 9-8 after the Rams drained their first shot of the game from behind the arc.

At the second media timeout the Rams had a 17-12 advantage thanks to an active defense and great shooting from the perimeter. Down five at 19-14 midway through the first half, Plaisted had not even attempted a shot for the Cougars. BYU was shooting 50 percent from the floor, but CSU's three triples had the underdog on top.

Still unshaken, BYU regained the lead at 20-19 at the 9:01 mark while tying the team record (256) for threes in season when freshman Jimmer Fredette connected from beyond the arc. CSU's fourth three-pointer of the half then tipped the scales back in the Rams' direction at 22-20.

The Cougars built their second three-point lead of the game at 25-22 on buckets from Burgess and Tavernari, but the Rams made their fifth triple of the game to knot the score at 25. Collinsworth returned the favor with only his fifth three-point make of the season to put BYU back on top and set a new BYU record for threes in a single season.

At one point in the first half, CSU went 11:19 without making a two-point shot, but made five three-pointers in the same time frame. In total, the Rams made six threes and shot 41.4 percent from the field in the first half. BYU joined in the long-range rally and made six triples of its own and shot 56.5 percent from the floor. After the initial onslaught from the Rams, BYU made its own run and took a 40-34 lead into the locker room at the break.

The tale of the second half was told through Cummard's player-of-the-year performance. The half began with Plaisted's first bucket of the game. His shot was followed by senior Ben Murdock's first trey of the game, propelling BYU to its first double-digit lead of the contest at 45-34. But that was only the beginning.

The two teams traded buckets, but turnovers hurt CSU and the confident Cougars continued their attack. Cummard reached double-digits with his second make from behind the arc in as many tries. He then hit a 10-foot fall-away jumper in the lane on the next play for his 14th point. He continued the run with a steal on the defensive end followed by an assist on the break away to Burgess, who made a layup and converted another point at the charity stripe for a three-point play.

Cummard kept the drive alive with an assist on a skip pass to Tavernari, who drained his second three from the left wing to give BYU its first 20-point lead of the game at 60-40. He drained his third three-pointer in as many tries to push the lead to 63-40 and blocked a shot on the defensive end of the floor that led to another Cougar bucket. BYU made its first eight shots of the second half as CSU's hot first-half hands went cold, and the Cougars outscored the Rams 25-8 in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

"We're at our best when we're getting stops and getting in transition," Cummard said. "We took good shots today because we were making good passes and being unselfish with the ball."

With the advantage clearly in BYU's favor, the final 10 minutes saw both teams swapping buckets as the Cougars rested Cummard and his fellow starters. Every BYU player in uniform appeared in the game, and all 10 players on the floor showed consistent determination.

CSU shot 39.3 percent and made only one three-pointer in the second half. In contrast, BYU shot 73.9 in the half and made another six threes on only seven attempts. The Cougars shot 65.2 percent from the floor in total on the day, including 60.0 percent from down town.

BYU's semifinal game will be Friday at 6:30 p.m. PT at the Thomas & Mack Center against the No. 4 seed San Diego State.

CLICK HERE for postgame notes and quotes.

Official Basketball Box Score

Colorado State vs BYU Cougars

03/13/08 12:05 PM at LAS VEGAS, NEV. (THOMAS & MACK CENTER)

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VISITORS: Colorado State 7-25

TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS

## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN

13 McFARLAND, Andre.... f 3-9 3-6 0-0 1 3 4 0 9 0 2 0 0 33

04 WALKER, Marcus...... g 3-11 1-5 2-2 1 2 3 2 9 3 1 0 1 33

12 NIGON, Adam......... g 4-6 1-1 0-0 0 1 1 4 9 0 1 0 1 21

21 SIMMONS, Josh....... g 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 2 2 0 5 0 1 17

43 GARDNER, Willis..... g 3-6 1-2 2-2 1 1 2 1 9 5 3 0 0 30

03 CLAYMAN, Flynn...... 1-5 0-2 2-2 1 0 1 5 4 0 0 0 0 18

11 COHEN, David........ 2-4 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 9

22 WOODARD, Jesse...... 3-8 1-2 2-2 0 1 1 2 9 1 0 0 1 22

23 AGUILAR, Ronnie..... 2-3 0-0 1-2 0 6 6 5 5 0 0 0 0 12

33 VAN TASSEL, Jared... 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 2

40 McGINLEY, Joshua.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3

TEAM................ 2 2 4 1

Totals.............. 23-57 7-19 9-10 7 17 24 21 62 9 13 0 4 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-29 41.4% 2nd Half: 11-28 39.3% Game: 40.4% DEADB

3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 6-11 54.5% 2nd Half: 1-8 12.5% Game: 36.8% REBS

F Throw % 1st Half: 4-4 100 % 2nd Half: 5-6 83.3% Game: 90.0% 1,1

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HOME TEAM: BYU Cougars 26-6

TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS

## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN

45 TAVERNARI, Jonathan. f 5-8 2-4 0-0 0 3 3 3 12 1 0 0 1 22

44 PLAISTED, Trent..... c 4-6 0-0 3-5 0 2 2 2 11 3 7 2 1 26

20 BURGESS, Sam........ g 4-5 2-3 3-4 2 4 6 1 13 4 1 0 2 28

24 MURDOCK, Ben........ g 1-2 1-2 1-2 0 4 4 2 4 2 0 0 0 24

30 CUMMARD, Lee........ g 6-9 3-4 3-4 0 4 4 2 18 7 0 2 1 31

01 LOYD, JR., Michael.. 2-2 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 5 0 1 0 0 8

05 ROSE, Archie........ 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 3

14 MARTINEAU, Nick..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 4

32 FREDETTE, Jimmer.... 3-5 2-4 1-2 0 1 1 1 9 3 2 0 0 21

41 COLLINSWORTH, Chris. 4-5 1-2 3-4 3 7 10 1 12 3 1 2 1 21

54 MILES, Chris........ 0-3 0-0 3-7 1 1 2 1 3 0 0 1 0 12

TEAM................

Totals.............. 30-46 12-20 17-28 6 26 32 14 89 23 13 7 6 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-23 56.5% 2nd Half: 17-23 73.9% Game: 65.2% DEADB

3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 6-13 46.2% 2nd Half: 6-7 85.7% Game: 60.0% REBS

F Throw % 1st Half: 8-12 66.7% 2nd Half: 9-16 56.3% Game: 60.7% 3,1

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Officials: Verne Harris, Mike Giarratano, Ronnie Hernandez

Technical fouls: Colorado State-None. BYU Cougars-None.

Attendance: 6,843

Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total

Colorado State................ 34 28 - 62

BYU Cougars................... 40 49 - 89

Points in the paint-CS 22,BY 32. Points off turnovers-CS 11,BY 26.

2nd chance points-CS 8,BY 5. Fast break points-CS 4,BY 7.

Bench points-CS 24,BY 31. Score tied-3 times. Lead changed-6 times.

Last FG-CS 2nd-00:55, BY 2nd-00:32.

Largest lead-CS by 5 1st-12:18, BY by 28 2nd-10:11.