BYU basketball: Cougars could be called 'Trey Amigos'

PROVO — Consider calling them the "Trey Amigos."

The moniker might seem like a stretch for the BYU men's basketball team, given Trent Plaisted's post presence, Lee Cummard's dogged defense, another Mountain West Conference title run and Cougar fans watching home winning streaks, rankings and "bracketology" projections.

But the 2007-08 team is on its way to making a name for itself — and for its individual players as well — for its shooting performances from behind the 3-point arc.

While Saturday night's 76-57 victory over Air Force wasn't a lights-out effort from 3-point land, it certainly added to it.

Averaging 8.1 3s a game, the Cougars hit 11-of-20 and now have a record 643 3-point attempts this season, breaking the 1997-98 record of 638.

And 3-pointers did play a part in shutting down the Falcons, who rallied from several early eight-point deficits to tie it at 14-all before BYU canned back-to-back-to-back treys by the unlikely trio of Ben Murdock, Michal Loyd Jr. and Sam Burgess. The Falcons would never tie the score or lead after that.

Burgess ended up 3-of-3 on 3s — the only three shots he took — giving him 47 for the season in his ninth game of at least three treys.

Lloyd, who finished 2-of-3 behind the arc, sank his first 3-pointers since the start of league play.

Jonathan Tavernari, the Cougars' resident gunslinger, connected on 2-of-4 3s. His team-best season total of 72 is just two off the BYU season mark set by Andy Toolson in 1989-90. And with 197 attempts this year and counting, the sophomore from Brazil is on target to break Nick Sanderson's 1993 record of 209 trey tries.

Add in the 68 3s from his freshman season, and Tavernari already has 140 in less than two full seasons. That places him fourth on the Cougars' career list, behind Mark Bigelow (213), Mike Rose (163) and Toolson (141).

Others scoring 3s Saturday were Jimmer Fredette (2-of-2) and Cummard (1-of-1).

Besides the season-attempts mark broken, the Cougars have set another record this season and tied a third.

Hitting 13-of-16 3-pointers in last month's home victory over New Mexico, BYU set a single-game mark of .813 percentage (10-attempt minimum). And the 33 attempts in January's home victory over Loyola Marymount tied the 1992 mark against LSU.

With statistics from postseason tournaments counting, another mark within reach is the team season total. The Cougars have tallied 238 3-pointers, just 18 shy of last year's record 256.