Marcus Adams Jr. gets crowd roaring in ‘fearless’ performance as BYU rolls past Bellarmine

Arguably the biggest cheers of the night came when highly touted freshman Marcus Adams Jr. came off the bench in No. 17 BYU’s 101-59 win over Bellarmine Friday evening at the Marriott Center. The youngster from Torrance, California, made his much anticipated college debut near the midway point of the second half, ending the night with two points on 1-6 shooting in eight minutes.

The Marriott Center crowd of 14,429 erupted again when Adams scored his first bucket as a Cougar — a baseline jumper in front of his bench — with 2:16 left to play.

“I actually thought he made a couple really intelligent communication reads on defense and I loved that he was absolutely fearless on the offensive end,” BYU coach Mark Pope said of Adams. “I like young guys that are fearless. … You think about it, this is a high school senior right now. … He’s going to have a great future. He’s got a lot of growing to do, but he’s going to do it.”

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The Cougars took a few minutes to get going Friday, but once they did Bellarmine had little chance as BYU cruised to the blowout victory over the Knights.

“We just had to be disciplined on our end to kind of match what they were doing,” BYU senior guard Dawson Baker said. “(It was a) great team win.”

The two schools had never faced off before Friday evening’s contest that saw BYU earn its third consecutive victory. However, it’s a trip Bellarmine would soon like to forget, coming to Provo on the heels of a 42 point loss to Utah earlier in the week. Things didn’t get much better for the Knights against the Cougars, losing by the exact same margin.

The game was BYU’s lone contest over a 14-day span as the school’s schedule slows down over the holidays. The Cougars made the most of it, scoring over 100 points for the third time this season and just the seventh time ever under Pope.

“This team is special, it seems different,” BYU guard Trevin Knell said. “When it’s time to go, it’s time to go. … I feel like our guys were really ready to go. … We’re really a mature team this year.”

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The Cougars played without senior reserve Jaxson Robinson, who injured his ankle last week in a win over Georgia State. Despite the sharpshooter’s absence, BYU’s bench scored 44 points led by a trio of players scoring in double figures – junior big man Atiki Ally Atiki tying his career high of 12 points on 6-6 shooting from the field, sophomore forward Richie Saunders adding 12, and Baker chipping in 10.

Three Cougars starters reached double figures as well, with forward Noah Waterman scoring a team-high 15 points followed by 14 each from Knell and guard Spencer Johnson.

Still, BYU has yet to be at full strength for any game this season, its full potential being anyone’s best guess.

“We still haven’t had a game with a healthy roster,” Pope said. “I would like to have a healthy roster. But these guys have answered the bell in spite of all of that for a really impressive two month run.”

BYU entered Friday as the No. 2 team in the country in assists at 21.5 a game and continued their unselfish play against Bellarmine. The Cougars finished the contest well above that average, turning in 30 assists on the night.

“We have a lot of guys that want to play together,” Pope said. “I think that’s the beautiful thing. … There’s no hesitation to make plays for each other because they know it’s coming right back to them.”

BYU will get the opportunity to make more plays for each other when the school finishes its nonconference schedule next Saturday at home against Wyoming; game time is scheduled for 4 p.m.