BYU basketball: Cougars set nets ablaze in easy romp over Rams

PROVO — At times this season the BYU Cougars have made basketball look extremely easy, while also making their opponents look very bad.

During a 12-minute stretch Wednesday night in BYU's 94-60 win over Colorado State, the Cougars were running and gunning as well as a college basketball team can — and probably better than they have at any point this season.

"Of all of our conference games, I think is the most we've played together as a team" said Cougar forward Jonathan Tavernari, who scored a game-high 21 points.

The Rams led 5-4 early. With just over 13 minutes remaining in the opening half, BYU was clinging to 15-14 lead. For the remainder of the first half, however, the Cougars put on an offensive show that they'd like to repeat every game.

With a 25-5 run — which included a mini 12-0 stretch — the Cougars (18-5, 6-3 MWC) blew the game open in a hurry. They finished the half on 36-13 tear, and that included the Rams scoring five points in the final minute. At halftime BYU had the game well in hand, leading 51-27.

"The most impressive thing about that first half is how we shared the ball," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "We shared it in transition, in the half court, and were always looking for one more pass."

BYU's numbers for the first 20 minutes were staggering in virtually every category. The Cougars shot 72.4 percent from the floor and 77.8 percent (7-of-9) from 3-point range. At

the break, the Cougars had 26 points in the paint, 11 points off of turnovers, 12 fast-break points and 11 bench points. Of BYU's 21 first-half baskets, 17 had an assist attached to them.

"When they made their run in the first half it was just our complete inability to do the basic things in basketball, and that is stop the ball and guard the ball," Rams coach Tim Miles said. "We allowed them to get going in transition, and then they started moving the ball and getting open looks and driving the ball and getting it to their big men, and it was just on from there."

To add a little insult to injury, BYU held the Rams to only 32 percent shooting over that same time period, and the Cougars outrebounded Colorado State 24-7 in the first half.

"Rebounding and assists are really big for this team, and we did that really well in the first half," Rose said.