Sizzling from behind the three-point line, the BYU men's basketball team rediscovered its shooting touch on Saturday afternoon in a resounding 83-66 victory over New Mexico at the Marriott Center.

The Cougars (15-5, 4-1) extended their home winning streak to 42 games, and moved into a tie with UNLV (15-4, 4-1) atop the Mountain West Conference standings.

A season-high crowd of 19,932 watched BYU torch the nets to break out of a three-game offensive cold spell and hand New Mexico (16-5, 3-3) its worst loss of the season. The Cougars shot 50.9 percent, including a staggering 81.3 percent (13 of 16) from behind the three-point line and assisted on 25 of their 27 field goals. Jonathan Tavernari got things rolling by hitting the first shot of the game along the baseline after barely 30 seconds had expired, and the Cougars never cooled down.

In their last three games, BYU had averaged 33.7 percent shooting overall and 18.6 percent from the three-point line. Tavernari was symbolic of the struggles in missing 24 of his 29 shots.

But aided by some pre-game visualization, the sophomore forward returned to his early-season form. He went five shots before his first miss and finished with 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting, including five three-pointers, in 23 minutes.

"That was really important," Tavernari said of knocking down his first shot. "As soon as I made it I was like, 'Wow. I made my first shot.' I hadn't made my first shot in a while. It was a good feeling."

BYU junior guard Lee Cummard predicted the Cougars would shed free of their shooting struggles, and advised his family to watch for a particular Brazilian breakout.

"I told them when JT hits his first two, he is probably going to hit four or five," said Cummard, who led BYU with 20 points, five assists and five rebounds.

Four nights after going 0-for-8 in a win over San Diego State, Sam Burgess found his touch again. The senior guard scored 15 points on 4-for-6 shooting, and was a perfect 3-for-3 from behind the three-point line. Trent Plaisted added 13 points and 13 rebounds.

The Cougars led by as many as 34 points in the second half and limited New Mexico (16-5, 3-3) to 34.4 percent shooting.

Freshman guard Dairese Gary led the Lobos with 17 points, but J.R. Giddens, trailed by Cummard, scored only four points on 2-for-8 shooting. The senior guard spent the majority of the second half on the bench.

The harmonious confluence of offensive efficiency and defensive stinginess pleased BYU coach Dave Rose after the Cougars had been wavering in between.

"When our team is in a mindset where we are sharing the ball and hitting shots, it allows us to maybe be a little bit more aggressive and not on our heels as much and that makes us better defensively," Rose said. "The bottom line is you just have to figure out what the personality of the game is going to be and kind of react to it."

rpotkey@sltrib.com

BYU 83, New Mexico 66