PROVO, Utah — Jimmer Fredette is finally starting to look like the guy who scored a school-record 49 points against Arizona last month.
Fredette scored 21 points and No. 18 BYU matched the best start in school history through 19 games with a 91-47 whipping of Colorado State on Saturday.
Fredette’s long jumper and defensive play were part of a decisive 17-2 run at the end of the first half that made it look easy.
“You can see he’s got some rust on him, and he’s trying to play through it,” said BYU coach Dave Rose, whose team has won 13 consecutive games.
Fredette missed two of the previous four games and played sparingly in others because of strep throat and mononucleosis.
CSU was averaging 76 points through two conference games but was held to just 38 percent and 1-of-13 from beyond the 3-point arc. The Cougars (18-1, 3-0 MWC), meanwhile, shot 54 percent from the field and forced 23 turnovers.
Greg Smith scored 13 points to lead CSU (11-6, 2-1), which got within 21-20 with 8:07 left in the first half on Travis Franklin’s short jumper. But the Rams missed their final nine shots of the period, allowing the Cougars to pull away.
“I thought the game really started off fine, but after about eight minutes it was not fine,” Colorado State coach Tim Miles said. “This BYU team is a special team, and they just are not recognized enough.”
FG FT Reb
CSU Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Franklin 24 2-6 0-1 3-4 0 3 4
Hornung 29 2-2 0-0 2-4 0 4 4
Ogide 19 3-5 1-1 1-6 1 1 7
Nigon 23 1-6 3-4 0-2 0 1 6
Green 29 2-8 3-6 0-3 2 2 7
Bocar Ba 11 0-1 0-2 0-2 0 3 0
Busch 8 2-3 2-2 2-5 0 0 6
McFarland 14 0-4 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Annese 4 0-2 0-0 1-1 1 1 0
Perry 10 0-4 0-0 0-1 1 1 0
Dunn 8 0-1 0-0 0-2 0 1 0
Smith 21 4-9 5-6 0-1 0 1 13
Totals 200 16-51 14-22 10-34 5 20 47
Percentages: FG .314, FT .636. 3-point goals: 1-13, .077 (Nigon 1-4, Annese 0-1, Green 0-2, Smith 0-2, Perry 0-2, McFarland 0-2). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 1 (Bocar Ba). Turnovers: 23 (Franklin 6, Ogide 5, Smith 2, Busch 2, Perry 2, Nigon 2, Dunn, Green, Hornung, McFarland). Steals: 4 (Nigon 2, Hornung, Green). Technical fouls: None.
FG FT Reb
BYU Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Haws 25 3-5 4-4 0-2 2 0 11
Hartsock 23 3-4 0-0 1-3 3 1 6
Miles 22 1-1 1-2 0-4 2 3 3
Emery 20 3-6 0-0 1-3 1 3 7
Fredette 24 8-18 3-3 1-2 4 1 21
Davies 15 3-4 2-6 1-4 0 4 8
Abouo 17 4-5 2-3 3-8 3 3 10
Morgan Jr. 16 2-2 0-0 0-1 1 0 5
Loyd Jr. 10 2-4 0-0 0-1 0 2 4
Magnusson 3 0-0 1-2 0-1 1 1 1
Zylstra 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Anderson 3 0-0 1-3 0-1 0 0 1
Tavernari 19 5-9 2-2 0-3 2 2 14
Totals 200 34-58 16-25 8-36 20 20 91
Percentages: FG .586, FT .640. 3-point goals: 7-17, .412 (Tavernari 2-3, Fredette 2-5, Morgan Jr. 1-1, Haws 1-2, Emery 1-4, Loyd Jr. 0-2). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 7 (Hartsock 4, Davies, Miles, Anderson). Turnovers: 13 (Fredette 3, Miles 2, Emery 2, Davies 2, Hartsock, Loyd Jr., Tavernari, Morgan Jr.). Steals: 9 (Tavernari 4, Emery 3, Abouo, Morgan Jr.). Technical fouls: None.
Colorado State 22 25 — 47
BYU 38 53 — 91
A — 20,155. Officials —Verne Harris, Ronnie Hernandez, Newton Chelette.
