PROVO — With confident outside shooting passed from player to player to player, BYU deployed a successful perimeter game as contagious as a viral infection.
Shooting 59 percent from the field and 56 percent behind the arc, the Cougars canned a school-record-tying 14 3-pointers in their 89- 65 victory over TCU.
The backcourt barrage was led by freshman swingman Jonathan Tavernari’s 6-of-7 shooting from behind the arc, a 5-of-7 contribution from senior point guard Austin Ainge and another pair of treys from BYU individual record-holder Mike Rose.
“It’s kinda contagious,” admitted Rose.
Added his uncle, BYU coach Dave Rose: “It’s contagious because it breeds confidence.”
No one served as a bigger example than Ainge and Tavernari — Ainge, who returned to the Cougars’ starting lineup after Monday’s suspension of Rashaun Broadus and was thrust into Wednesday’s limelight, and Tavernari, who displayed on-court some maturity and patience that had been missing earlier in the season.
“Austin did a good job of handling the press, and then he hit some big shots that gave us the lead and got us going,” said Dave Rose of Ainge’s two threes and eight points during a 17-3 BYU surge in the opening four-plus minutes.
Ainge, a fifth-year senior and multi-season starter who said he tried to treat Wednesday’s contest like “a normal game,” finished with a season-high 20 points, tied his season high with six assists and shot 7-of-9 from the floor.
Meanwhile, Tavernari came in having made only 6-of-22 3-pointers all season and calmly sank his first six attempts, accounting for his career-best 18 points.
He missed on his last shot with six minutes to play.
“I was off balance,” he said. “I know I’m going to get a hard time from Coach (Dave) Rice and Coach (Walter) Roese.”
For a while, Mike Rose’s school-record 8-of-13 3-point performance in the 2004 home-opener against Southern Utah seemed in jeopardy.
“A couple of guys were teasing me on the bench,” he said Mike Rose. “If it happens, it happens. He’ll probably get it — he’s just a freshman.”
And still learning, with Cougar coaches and players all saying Tavernari — who on the oncourt playing speed mirrors his nonstop talking — simply needs to slow down.
“We say a million things to him — but he never listens,” quipped Ainge. “The kid can really shoot — we see it all the time in practice. The important thing is that he needs to slow down — freshman want to play too fast.”
Added Dave Rose: “The whole thing about Jonathan is patience. He’s got a lot of ability. He just wants to do everything at once.”
And they’ve got a willing student.
“I’ve just got to listen,” said Tavernari, who played at Timpview High. “They’re good players, and I’ve got to learn from them.”
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