Texas A&M; starts and ends well to beat BYU

Texas A&M; ran away early from Brigham Young and then, after squandering the lead, ran away late to secure a 67-62 win Thursday in a NCAA first-round West Regional game at the Honda Center.

The victory set up a second-round, Saturday match-up with top-seeded UCLA in another NCAA showdown of Pac-10 versus Big 12.

UCLA can only hope it isn’t a repeat of USC versus Kansas State.

Texas A&M;, the West’s No. 9-seeded team, got a timely, big-time performance from junior guard Josh Carter, who matched his career high with 26 points and made six of 10 three-point shots.

Carter is a streaky shooter and was the player hurt most by the departure of Aggie star Acie Law.

“His role changed,” first-year Coach Mark Turgeon said. “ . . . So it is a whole different game for him this year. . . . “

Carter made his first three-point attempt, and his second, and his third, accounting for nine points in an 11-0 run to start the game.

“It felt great,” Carter said. “My teammates kept telling me all week to just keep shooting and it would begin to fall for you.”

The Cougars, though, who did not score their first basket until 14 minutes left in the half, rallied to tie the score, 29-29, at the half.

It was still anyone’s game late after BYU forward Jonathan Tavernari’s layup cut Texas A&M;’s lead to 54-53 with 3:46 left.

Dominique Kirk answered for Texas A&M; by making two three-pointers in the final 3:25, the second with 26 seconds left to put his team up by six.

Kirk missed his other five three-point attempts.

“At critical times, they made critical plays,” BYU Coach Dave Rose said.

Champions of the Mountain West, eighth-seeded BYU thought it was ready to take the next NCAA step after beating Louisville in the regular season and losing to North Carolina by only 10.

The Cougars, though, scored 12 fewer than their season average, were outrebounded by 12 and outplayed in most other aspects.

BYU, which finished 27-8, has lost in the first round in all five of its NCAA tournament appearances this century.

Tavernari led the Cougars with 15 points, and Lee Cummard had 14.

Texas A&M;’s Carter said he was looking forward to playing UCLA.

“I’ve watched them on TV all year, and they’re a great team,” Carter said of the Bruins. “I mean, we’re just excited. They have great players . . . they’re going to be hard to guard, but I mean we’re a great team too.”

UCLA and Texas A&M; met last season in the Honda Center, at the Wooden Classic; the Bruins won by three.

--

chris.dufresne@latimes.com