BYU basketball notebook: Cougars take advantage of foul shots

LAS VEGAS — Sending the BYU Cougars to the free-throw line 37 times is a recipe for disaster.

For the Cougars, it's an ingredient to success — considering they lead the nation in free-throw percentage hitting 78.4 percent of their charity tosses.

"When we get there we're pretty consistent at knocking them down, so the more we can get there the better our team is," said freshman Tyler Haws, who hit 6-of-6 on Thursday to extend his streak to 38 straight, one shy of BYU's all-time record set by Jimmer Fredette earlier this season.

Against TCU in BYU's 95-85 win, the Cougars hit 33 of their 37 free throws to set a tournament record for free throws made — which was also the fifth-best percentage from the line in tournament history. Twenty-six of those attempts came in the second half. Fredette's 23-of-24 was also a tournament record.

Fredette was upset that he missed one of the 23 free throws he took.

"I'll think about it tonight and try to correct that. Hopefully I'll make all of 'em next time (smiling)," he said.

To start Thursday's second half the Cougars missed their first six shots. However, they took the lead by hitting 8-of-8 free throws during that same stretch.

"We have a free-throw shooting drill every day where if you miss them you run, so that's made everyone good from the line," Cougar forward Noah Hartsock said. "Even when someone comes in off the bench they're good at sinking them too."

HAWS TAKES POKE IN THE FACE: Early in the second half Thursday, as Haws crossed the lane, he took a hit to the face that caused a nose bleed, a bruise and a swollen eye.

"It felt like someone's fingers went back into my head," Haws said.

The freshman guard did not return to the game because of blurry vision, and because the eye had swollen nearly shut. Has was examined by doctors after the game to determine if there was any serious or permanent damage to his left eye, but late Thursday the results of that examination were not known.

MOHAWK TEAMMATES: Michael Loyd Jr. and Lamont Morgan Jr. arrived at Thursday's game with Mohawk hair cuts.

"It was just to spice it up a little bit for the tournament and have a little bit of fun," Loyd said. "There were supposed to be a couple of other guys do it but they decided to back out of it."

So far, coach Dave Rose hasn't commented on the new do's of his back-court reserves.

"I don't even really want to know what he's going to say," Loyd said.

MOST WINS EVER: With Thursday's win, the Cougars are now 29-4, with the 29 victories being the most in school history.

"That's kind of incredible to think about. There's been great players and a lot of great teams here," Hartsock said.

e-mail: jimr@desnews.com