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Cummard, Plaisted help Brigham Young pull away from Pepperdine

Dec 16, 2007 - 5:24 AM PROVO, Utah (Ticker) -- Brigham Young finally pulled away in the second half to extend the nation's longest home winning streak.

Lee Cummard had 21 points and Trent Plaisted had 18 points and tied a career high with 18 rebounds as the 25th-ranked Cougars surged in the second half to put Pepperdine away, 86-67, on Saturday.

Johnathan Tavernari scored all 10 of his points in the second half for BYU, which shot 56 percent (37-of-66) and held the Waves to 31 percent (22-of-70) shooting for the game.

"I am proud of our players for how they rallied around each other after how many turnovers we made," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "We made some adjustments at the half that helped us with avoiding turnovers in their press. Overall it was a good game for us."

With the win, the Cougars (9-2) extended their home winning streak to 37 games, moving them one ahead of Memphis, who currently has a 36-game home winning streak.

After trailing by seven points at the half, Pepperdine cut the deficit to three on Jarrad Henry's layup early in the second half. However, BYU answered with a 7-0 spurt to take a 51-41 lead with 14:57 remaining.

The Cougars then started to pull away, using a 9-0 run - capped by Tavernari's consecutive 3-pointers - to take a 64-47 lead with 10:16 left.

"The heart and soul of our team has a lot of experience in finding the best shot possible," Rose said. "When they pass up a good shot for a better shot, it becomes contagious throughout the whole team. That helped us out a lot tonight."

BYU led by at least 15 points the rest of the way and its biggest lead was 22 with 6:30 to play.

Cummard shot 10-of-12 for the game and it was Plaisted's fourth double-double of the season for BYU, which never trailed during the contest.

BYU overcame 29 turnovers and 5-of-12 free-throw shooting, outscoring Pepperdine, 46-24, in the paint and outscoring the Waves, 23-19, in points off turnovers.

"We turned the ball over 24 times," Pepperdine coach Vance Walberg said. "We're not going to beat anyone by doing that. When we create turnovers we need to take advantage of them on the other end of the floor, and tonight we didn't do that."

Plaisted scored six points as BYU started the game on a 13-3 spurt with 15:01 left in the first half.

The Cougars led by as many as 12 points in the first half before Jason Walberg's 3-pointer cut the Waves' deficit to 31-28 with 5:26 left.

BYU used a 9-1 run to build its lead back up to 11 and led, 40-33, at the break.

Walberg scored 17 points and Malcolm Thomas added 14 to lead the Waves (5-7), who have lost three of their last four games.

"This team has little experience," Coach Walberg said. "We have a long way to go, but we're going to get better. When all five players on our defense are where they're supposed to be and are doing their jobs good things can happen. For us to have any success we can't beat ourselves."