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Provo • Nick Emery didn't wait long to break Jimmer Fredette's record of consecutive games with a 3-pointer on Thursday night against Pepperdine.
BYU's sophomore guard hit a 3-pointer less than three minutes into the game, and now has made a trey in 29 straight games.
Emery drew a tough defensive assignment — Pepperdine's Lamond Murray Jr. is the second-leading scorer in the West Coast Conference, behind BYU's Eric Mika — and scored just five points in the first half.
Murray had 11 first-half points.
Kaufusi coming along
Junior center Corbin Kaufusi, who joined the team in late December after playing on the football team's defensive line, made a free throw and a rebound basket in the first half for his first points of the season.
Kaufusi didn't play in the Cougars' previous two games, against San Francisco and San Diego. He had logged just 17 minutes of action prior to the Pepperdine game.
He said he has "no regrets at all" about opting to play football last fall and joining the hoop squad late after having started in 13 games as a freshman and 23 last season.
Kaufusi, 6-foot-10, said he has dropped about 10 pounds the last three weeks since playing in the Poinsettia Bowl.
He said football coach Kalani Sitake "is really good with that, because he believes it will be good for me to lose the extra weight so I can start with a better foundation this summer and build it back up again."
Injury-depleted Waves
The Cougars have clearly missed senior starting forward Kyle Davis since he suffered a season-ending knee injury in December, but they have nothing on the Waves when it comes to having to play through injuries.
Pepperdine was down to eight scholarship players on Thursday night due to injuries and has played most of this year without two expected starters, guard Amadi Udenyi and forward Kameron Edwards.
Udenyi suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon tear against Portland State on Nov. 27, the second Achilles injury of his Pepperdine career. He will seek a medical redshirt and try to return for a fifth season in 2017-18.
Edwards, who earned WCC All-Freshman honors last season, suffered a fractured jaw in a practice on Nov. 5 and has missed the entire season.
Twitter: @drewjay