Tavernari, Cougars battle past TCU to finish 14-2 in MWC
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Bishop Gorman High School product Jonathan Tavernari scored 17 points, and Brigham Young overcame poor shooting to beat Texas Christian 61-54 Saturday.
BYU (25-6) had already clinched the Mountain West Conference regular-season title and finished with a 14-2 conference record.
The top-seeded Cougars will open the Mountain West tournament at noon Thursday against the winner of Wednesday's play-in game between eighth-seeded Wyoming and ninth-seeded Colorado State.
BYU had to come back after blowing a 10-point halftime lead. The Cougars fell behind 46-44 with 9:18 remaining, but held the Horned Frogs (14-15, 6-10) to one basket the rest of the way, a 3-pointer by Jason Ebie with 1.6 seconds left.
Lee Cummard had 16 points and eight rebounds and Sam Burgess added 13 points.
TCU is seeded seventh in the MWC tournament and will play No. 2 UNLV at 6 p.m. Thursday.
• New Mexico 71, Colorado State 52 -- At Fort Collins, Colo., Daniel Faris compiled 15 points and eight boards, and the Lobos (24-7, 10-6) doomed the Rams (6-24, 0-16) to a winless conference season.
The Lobos wrapped up the No. 3 seed in the MWC tournament and will open at 8:30 p.m. Thursday against sixth-seeded Utah.
Colorado State suffered its school-record 17th straight loss and will face Wyoming in the MWC play-in game at noon Wednesday.
• Air Force 46, San Diego State 43 -- At Air Force Academy, Colo., Tim Anderson scored 11 points to lead the Falcons (16-13, 8-8) over the Aztecs (9-7, 19-11) in a preview the teams' MWC tournament first-round rematch.
San Diego State is the No. 4 seed and Air Force is No. 5, and they'll meet again at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
D.J. Gay scored 17 points to lead the Aztecs.
