TEMPE, Arizona — In the Big 12, any win is a good win. That’s especially true on the road, even if the opponent is without arguably its three best players.
That’s what the No. 25 BYU Cougars were saying after they sort of cruised past severely shorthanded Arizona State 91-81 Wednesday night in front of 9,383 at Desert Financial Arena.
In other words, BYU is not giving it back, while improving to 20-8 overall and 11-6 in conference play. Completing the sweep of the Arizona schools, BYU is now tied for fourth place in the conference with three games remaining.
Did anyone see this coming after the Cougars lost four of their first six league games, including that gut-punch of a loss to rival Utah by a point in overtime?
What’s more, BYU has now won five straight conference games for the first time in five years, in 2020 in the WCC.
Wednesday night’s “quasi-home game” — with about half the arena decked in blue and cheering for the Cougars — was not spectacularly satisfying because BYU could never really put away a club that had won only one game in its last seven coming in.
Coach Bobby Hurley dismissed star guard BJ Freeman before their surprising 66-54 win at Kansas State last Sunday, then prized freshman center Jayden Quantaince (knee) and surging star Alston Mason (illness) were ruled out before tipoff.
To make matters worse, starting guard Adam Miller got hurt twice, and logged only 13 minutes.
Arizona State (13-15, 4-13) led for only 28 seconds, after a dunk by 7-footer Shawn Phillips Jr. a little more than two minutes into the game. After that, it was all Cougars, thanks to a terrific 3-point shooting display.
BYU made a season-high 17 triples, including 10 in the first half, and pretty much clicked all night on offense except in one key category: free-throw shooting.
BYU was 17 of 34 from deep and 6 of 15 — yes, you read that right — from the free-throw line, meaning the Cougars shot better from long range than they did uncontested from 15 feet — 50% to 40%.
“I had a moment where I was walking off the court and looking up there seeing, probably half the arena was blue, to be honest with you. But also, credit to ASU in terms of being classy. We have had some other stuff along the road that is not classy. So, appreciate the fans here.”
— BYU coach Kevin Young
That kind of misfiring from the charity stripe will lose you important games in March.
“Yeah, just keep getting in the gym, keep working on it (is the remedy),” Young said. “We did get a nice little rhythm there for a while. Tonight was an anomaly, to go 3 of 11 in the second half. We have a worker-like group. They will be anxious to get back in the gym.”
In the end, Richie Saunders came to the rescue, along with Dallin Hall. After ASU cut the lead to nine with 5:34 remaining on a 3 by Amier Ali, Hall and Saunders drained 3s to right the Cougars’ ship. BYU led by as many 17, but ASU scored the game’s last 7 points to, ahem, make some people happy and some people not as 12.5-point underdogs.
“We have had the fortune of playing in a lot of great environments and being in those situations before, and so just trusting the work, trusting the guy next to us (was key),” said Hall, who had 13 points and four assists. “Coach is always on us to be assertive, to be aggressive and hunt for those shots. So looking for those opportunities and shooting with confidence and living with the result is our mentality.”
Saunders, the reigning Big 12 Player of the Week, was strong throughout, finishing with 26 points on 10 of 19 shooting.
“That’s one of the reasons why I like playing with D-Hall. That’s what he does,” Saunders said, after scoring 20 or more points for the third-straight game.
Every time it appeared the Sun Devils were going to make a run — as shorthanded as they were — Saunders seemed to have an answer. ASU got a huge lift off the bench from freshman guard Trevor Best, who had 18 points after having not scored yet this season.
“Hard-fought game. We knew it would be. I mean, (ASU) was a team that is super undermanned. I have seen it a lot in my minor league coaching career, is what it reminded me of,” Young said. “Teams lose their best player day of the game, or shortly before it, and you got guys come in who have been sitting there all season, and they are excited to play.”
From this end, there were moments when the Cougars seemed to lose a bit of focus, made some lackadaisical passes and whatnot, but Young disputed that notion.
“We knew that was what it was going to be like (ASU shorthanded), so we tried to get ahead of it with our players,” Young said. “Our guys were able to make plays down the stretch, even with shooting poorly at the free-throw line. I thought our 3-point shooting obviously was outstanding tonight.
“And 21 assists (on 34 baskets), that is how we like to play.”
The Cougars played well enough in the first half to have more than a 47-37 lead, but couldn’t keep the Sun Devils off the free-throw line in the first 20 minutes.
Hurley picked up a technical foul with 8:19 remaining in the half, and the whistles turned in the home team’s direction. Arizona State was 11 of 16 from the free-throw line, drawing 11 fouls on BYU and putting the Cougars in a bit of early foul trouble.
The last six fouls of the first half were called on BYU.
Why should BYU have been ahead by more?
The Cougars shot a blistering 45% from deep (10 of 22) and got 10 inside points from Fousseyni Traore.
Saunders was 5 of 8 from beyond the arc in the first half, and took 15 points into the break.
Trevin Knell added four first-half triples, and Dawson Baker had the 10th.
Knell finished with 18 on 5 of 6 shooting from deep.
BYU is 4-0 in its last four Quad 1 games, and improved to 28-19 all-time vs. ASU. The Cougars have seemingly got it going at just the right time, but will need to get better defensively, in addition to returning to their former selves at the free-throw line.
“There is always stuff we can get better at. We gave up 81 points tonight and 95 points the game before. So our defense has to be better,” Young said. “Again, credit to Arizona State. They put pressure on us and they made shots. Offensively, I just love how unselfish our guys are playing. But we definitely gotta clean up some things on the defensive end.”
As for the makeup of the crowd, and how it treated both teams with respect, Young threw a little jab at Arizona after being asked about the large contingent of BYU fans in the arena on Wednesday night.
“I had a moment where I was walking off the court and looking up there seeing, probably half the arena was blue, to be honest with you,” he said. “But also, credit to ASU in terms of being classy. We have had some other stuff along the road that is not classy. So, appreciate the fans here.”
