No. 6 Wake Forest snaps Cougars' streak

PROVO — The BYU Cougars' 53-game home winning streak was snapped Saturday night by losing a back-and-forth battle to No. 6 Wake Forest by a score of 94-87.

It's BYU's second loss of the season and both have come against nationally-ranked teams. The first was a one-point loss to No. 17 Arizona State on Dec. 20.

The final score is not indicative of the closeness of the game. The Cougars came back from a 9-point first-half deficit to take an 8-point lead midway through the second half, only to see it slowly disappear. The lead changed hands 11 times and the score was tied 10 times — with the final time being 85-85 with under two minutes remaining.

However, the Demon Deacons scored eight straight over the next 90 seconds while the Cougars missed six straight 3-point shots. The Cougars hit only 24 percent of their second-half trey attempts.

The Cougars were led in scoring by Jimmer Fredette, who scored 18 of his 23 in the opening half. Jonathan Tavernari added 18, Lee Cummard 17, Jackson Emery 13 and Charles Abouo came off the bench to chip in 10.

Deacon guard Jeff Teague was the killer for Wake Forest, scoring a game-high 30. James Johnson added 22 and Al-Farouq Aminu scored 12.