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By DOUG ALDEN AP Sports Writer
PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Lee Cummard scored a career-high 27 points and No. 25 Brigham Young won for the 36th straight time at home, beating Lamar 88-66 on Wednesday night.
Trent Plaisted added 22 points and Jonathan Tavernari scored 11 for the Cougars (8-2), who held a double-digit lead through most of the game. BYU also avenged an overtime loss to the Cardinals (3-6) last December.
The Cougars made 11 of 28 3-pointers and took advantage as Lamar struggled to hit shots. The Cardinals finished 24-for-63 and were 5-for-18 from beyond-the-arc as they tried to make a dent in BYU's lead, which only kept getting bigger.
BYU also dominated the boards, pulling down 50 to Lamar's 34. Cummard had 10 rebounds and Plaisted finished with seven for BYU.
Lamar Sanders scored 11 to lead Lamar, which was taunted with "air-ball" chants from the Cougar fans for most of the night. It was so bad that Sanders was about a foot short on a free throw in the second half as the game was getting out of hand.
Darren Hopkins converted a three-point play to pull the Cardinals to 65-53 with 7:25 left in the game, but Cummard answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to start an 18-5 run for the Cougars.
Cummard and Plaisted combined on a couple of plays that thrilled the small crowd of 8,130. Plaisted had the ball at the baseline and bounced a backward pass to Cummard for an easy layup. Later in the half, Cummard returned the favor by banking a pass off the backboard to Plaisted for an emphatic dunk.
Cummard had never scored more than 21 points in a game.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV-12-12-07 2115MST
