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(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- Jonathan Tavernari scored 23 points, Jackson Emery and Charles Abouo added 22 each and No. 14 BYU routed TCU 107-77 on Saturday.
Jimmer Fredette finished with 18 points for the Cougars (28-4, 13-3 Mountain West), who recovered from an early 14-point deficit to beat the Horned Frogs for the 12th straight time.
Ronnie Moss had 17 points to pace TCU (13-18, 5-11).
The teams will meet for the third time this season in the conference tournament, which starts Wednesday in Las Vegas. Second-seeded BYU faces the No. 7-seed Horned Frogs on Thursday.
TCU bolted to an 18-4 lead against lethargic BYU, hitting its first seven field goal attempts, including 3-pointers from Keion Mitchem, Zvonko Buljan and Edvinas Ruzgas.
At that point, Cougars coach Dave Rose sat down four of his starters.
BYU's subs picked up the pace defensively, answering with a 27-11 spurt to move in front 31-29 with 8:07 left until halftime. The Cougars ran off 11 unanswered points late in the first half, including 3s from Tavernari, Fredette and Emery, and led 57-43 at halftime.
Tavernari had 16 first-half points, going 4 for 6 on 3-pointers.
Backed by a cheering section that made more noise than TCU fans, Brigham Young led by as many as 32 in the second half. Abouo's 3-pointer with 4:27 left stretched the Cougars' advantage to 101-71, and Rose cleared his bench.
The Cougars scored 100 or more points for the third time this season. They had 110 in a win over Nevada on Dec. 23 and 107 while beating Southern on Nov. 24.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
