BYU basketball: No surprise as streaks stay intact in BYU win

PROVO — Two of the nation's longest streaks in college basketball are still alive.

With BYU crushing North Florida 74-41 Thursday night in Round 1 of the Basketball Travelers Invitational at the Marriott Center, the Cougars extended their home winning streak to 49 games.

Any other result, however, would have been stunning considering the Ospreys (0-2) have now lost 51 straight games on the road and have never defeated a Division I team on the road.

"Our stats across the board are pretty good, but I think there's a lot of room for improvement in how our effort and execution can be over the 40-minute period of a game," said BYU coach Dave Rose, who wasn't totally satisfied with the lopsided victory.

Still, BYU took control fairly early, thanks mainly to a stalwart defensive effort in the first half in which North Florida was outrebounded by 10, shot only 20 percent from the floor, had seven turnovers to one assist, had a nine-minute stretch without a basket, scored only four points in the half's final 14 minutes and didn't score at all in the half's final 4:43.

"We were terrific in our (defensive) execution for the majority of that first half," Rose said.

On the offensive end, the Cougars pulled away from a 14-8 lead with a 16-2 run in which all five starters contributed. In gaining a 35-12 halftime lead, Tavernari was the main guy with 13 points in the first half on 5-of-10 shooting, which included 3-of-7 on 3-pointers. He finished with a game-high 25 on 10-of-16 shooting and 5-of-10 from 3-point range in only 24 minutes. He also added five rebounds and four assists.

But he left the Marriott Center unsatisfied with his team's performance.

"We should have won by 50, 60. It (the 33-point margin) doesn't matter. We didn't come out and play as hard as we should have," Tavernari said.

Rose was supportive of Tavernari's displeasure.

"I'm glad that when a player scores 24 or 25 points they walk away from here realizing he can play better and that there's room for improvement," he said.

North Florida coach Matt Kilcullen had nothing but praise for the Cougars.

"I was impressed with how well BYU runs its offense. They're multi-faceted, they've got a lot of tools and they read each other well," Kilcullen said.