MWC Tournament: No. 8 BYU holds off upset-minded TCU 64-58 to advance

TCU-BYU boxscore

LAS VEGAS — After laboring to dispatch No. 9 seeded TCU Thursday afternoon in the Mountain West Conference quarterfinals, BYU now awaits an even tougher challenge.

The top-seeded, and No. 8 ranked, Cougars (29-3) escaped the Thomas & Mack Center with a 64-58 victory over the Horned Frogs, setting up a semifinal game tonight (7 p.m., CBS-C) with No. 4 seeded New Mexico, which defeated Colorado State, 67-61.

The Lobos (21-11) swept the season series against BYU, including an 82-64 win in Provo last Wednesday, and are the only MWC team to beat the Cougars this season. UNM has won four consecutive games against BYU.

"In the last couple of years, they haven't lost too many games outside of us," said Lobo coach Steve Alford. "I don't know if we know that secret. It's just kind of been fortunate it's happened that way."

After Thursday's hard-fought win, the Cougars were just happy to still be playing.

"We got the win," said guard Jimmer Fredette. "That's really what matters. We keep moving forward. It's one-and-done. I'm just proud of my teammates, how we battled, and found a way to win, even though we didn't play very well."

TCU coach Jim Christian hatched a plan to upset BYU, and for much of the game, that plan worked as the Frogs controlled the pace and implemented a zone defense against a Cougar team that loves to run and score in transition.

BYU shot an ice-cold 6-of-23 from 3-point range and held to one of their lowest scoring performances of the season.

With 22.7 seconds left in the game, TCU trailed by only two points, with a chance to shock the Cougars. But in the end, BYU eked out the victory.

"The pace of the game was pretty slow. It was dictated by TCU," said BYU coach Dave Rose. "We got a little impatient at time offensively. But for the most part, we got good shots. We just were in a little bit of a hurry. I think a lot of that had to do with the pace defensively. We were on defense a long time."

"We knew coming in we had to try to control tempo as best we can," Christian said. "The game was in the 60s, so we couldn't have done a much better job of that."

Fredette and Jackson Emery combined to shoot 10-of-34 from the floor. Fredette finished with a game-high 24 points.