BYU basketball: Poor shooting proves costly in tourney loss

PHILADELPHIA — The thing that made BYU a dominant basketball team early in the year was outstanding shooting.

In the Cougars' stretch run, however, that shooting made a full about-face and made several wins for the Cougars tough to come by, and played a big factor in their loss Thursday to Texas A&M.

Midway through the conference season the Cougars (25-8) led the nation by making nearly 52 percent of their shots. Entering Thursday's first-round game against Texas A&M that number had dipped below 49 percent.

Against the Aggies the Cougars made only 35.5 percent in the first half and finished the game making 23-of-59 shots, or 39 percent of their attempts.

After making their first shot, the Cougars then missed six straight. And after a hot first-half from behind the arc in the first half, the Cougars hit only 1-of-6 second-half 3-point shots.

"I think we had a little bit of, well not a little, but too much energy (to start the game)," Cougar co-captain Lee Cummard said. "Just got out there and we were rushed a little bit offensively."

The story was the similar in BYU's final nine games. After a 70-percent shooting first half against TCU on Feb. 14, the Cougars didn't have another first half in which they shot anywhere close to 50 percent.

Only twice down the stretch — against Air Force and San Diego State in the Mountain West Conference Tournament — did BYU shoot better than 40 percent in a first half. Three times — at San Diego State, home against Utah and home against Air Force — they shot under 30 percent for the first 20 minutes.

Those poor shooting numbers put the Cougars in a hole, trailing at halftime, in their final eight games. The last time BYU lead at the break was Feb. 14 at TCU. Prior to then, the Cougars had led at the half in 22 of their first 25 games.

Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon feels he knows why the Cougars struggled against his Aggies.

"I didn't want to say it publicly before the game, but I felt like there was more pressure on them because they hadn't won an NCAA Tournament game (in 16 years)," Turgeon said. "Sometimes when you're trying to get over the hump, it puts more pressure. ... I tried to look at some of their comments. ... There was a lot of pressure on those kids to finally win one."

Cummard started the game hitting 1-of-7 shots before making 5-of-7 in the second half. Jimmer Fredette was 5-of-13, Jonathan Tavernari was 3-of-9 and Chris Miles was 2-of-8.

With the Cougars in position to cut the lead to six late in the first half, Miles missed a key bank shot. With a chance to make the margin single digits in the second half, Fredette missed a short running bank shot. Then, with the margin down to nine, Fredette and Jackson Emery each missed an open 3-point shot.

"I thought that was a big turning point in the game," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "If we could have got one of those two shots to go in, we could have made a run at the end."

e-mail: jimr@desnews.com