LAS VEGAS – Jimmer Fredette scored 39 points to lead No. 15 Brigham Young to an 89-77 win over 25th-ranked UNLV on Wednesday night in the Mountain West Conference opener.
He hit seven 3-pointers for the Cougars (15-1, 1-0), who ended an eight-game losing streak against UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center dating back to Feb. 5, 2005.
Jackson Emery had 22 points, while Brandon Davies added 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Cougars, who led 38-35 at halftime.
Anthony Marshall led the Rebels (12-3, 0-1) with a career high 26 points. Tre'Von Willis added 14 points and seven rebounds while Brice Massamba and Oscar Bellfield each had 10 points for UNLV, which had two 10-point first-half leads.
This was Fredette's third largest career scoring output. His career high was 49 against Arizona in 2009. Fredette, the nation's third-leading scorer averaging 24.1 coming into Wednesday, had 45 in the same arena, against TCU in the Mountain West Conference tournament last season.
After BYU jumped to a 15-12 lead, the Rebels went on a 13-0 run. But Fredette answered with 13 of his 17 first-half points as the Cougars led 38-35 at halftime, capped by his 3-pointer with 39 seconds left.
They never trailed in the second half, jumping out to a 19-7 spurt and silencing the crowd of 17,942. After BYU built its biggest lead of 78-57, the Rebels made a mild comeback and cut it to 83-75 with 1:07 remaining.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.