BYU gets tough defensively in dispatching North Carolina

AJ Dybantsa couldn’t believe it and put his hands over his head and walked away in disbelief that he’d fouled North Carolina guard Seth Trimble way beyond the 3-point arc with No. 8 ranked BYU up 78-73 with 11 seconds left on Friday night.

But in the end, it only dumped some drama into an exhibition no-count BYU tangle with No. 25 ranked North Carolina at the Delta Center Friday night before a decent crowd that emptied their wallets for a high-priced practice ticket.

Trimble made all three free throws to cut a 5-point BYU lead to two, 78-76. When Richie Saunders then missed two free throws with 9.5 seconds left, it elevated the drama. 

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North Carolina called timeout on their end of the court with 7 seconds left, and when Trimble drove the lane for a the game-tying shot, BYU’s monster man Keba Keita swatted it away,

Game over.

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No. 8 BYU now prepares for the season opener against Villanova with a bit more knowledge about what it’s got:  A feisty, athletic team seeking more consistency from 3-point land.

This game featured BYU’s potential No. 1 pick Dybantsa and North Carolina’s 5-star fellow freshman Caleb Wilson, a 6-foot-10 projected All-ACC forward from Atlanta. 

Wilson led all scores with 22 points and 10 rebounds.  Dybantsa had 18 points and 8 boards.

‘It was fun to watch those guys compete,” said BYU’s Kevin Young afterward. “I mean, you’d be hard-pressed to find that level of a matchup in terms of guys with that level of size in college.  There were moments when both had unbelievable defensive plays back to back and obviously they scored.”

North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said the difference in this exhibition was BYU getting 19 turnovers from his Tar Heels and turning them into 16 points. 

“This was very valuable to make this trip, travel and play a team as good as BYU,” he said.

BYU outscored North Carolina 44-38 in the paint despite impressive Tar Heel height, including 7-foot Estonian center Henri Veesaar (14 points) and 6-foot-11 Jarin Stevenson. BYU countered with Keita (16 points, 10 rebounds) and Mihailo Boskovic under the boards.

The big takeaways for the Cougars were poor 3-point shooting (5 for 25), increased defense and tenacity from Khadim Mboup, Dybantsa (3 steals), Richie Saunders (3 steals) and Kennard Davis (2 steals) and outscoring North Carolina inside the paint.

Young said it felt good to win a close game the way the Cougars did.

“I think sometimes as coaches, we really get in the weeds about the schemes and this and that, but just to find a way to win, honestly, against a good, well-coached team, that is really big,” he said.

“I thought the toughness we showed, especially the defense by Davis and the big rebound by Mboup, were huge.”

Young toyed with different lineups. When he took Saunders, Dybantsa, Keita and Rob Wright III out and North Carolina made runs, he reinserted his starters and they made runs. 

When the Tar Heels went on an 8-0 run to tie BYU at 18, he ran in a few starters and went hunting. When North Carolina tied the game at 28, he repeated and the Cougars took a 39-35 halftime lead on a Saunders jumper and Dybantsa dunk. 

His first man off the bench was the 6-foot-8 Mboup for Keita. Young put Aleksej Kostic in at the point when Wright went out and at other times shuffled Dybantsa as the prime point. 

Tyler Mrus saw his first minutes of the season but Dawson Baker remained on the bench with an undisclosed injury.

Wright displayed his elite ball handling, penetrating the key and drawing two fouls from Tar Heel starting point guard Kyan Evans in the first five minutes.

Evans sat most of the first half.

The Cougars did a lot of weaves and overload sets to move the ball to the weak side with attempts to set up Saunders, who got off to a slow start before scoring 9 before halftime. Showing the pick and roll was not part of Young’s plans at Nebraska or this exhibition in Salt Lake City.

Young showed a lot of drive and kicks and isolation plays by Wright and Dybantsa, although he said Wright needed to be in more control at times.

North Carolina outshot BYU 46 to 41 percent. Both coaches were disappointed with misses from distance. BYU shot 20% from beyond the arc while North Carolina was 21% on 4 of 19.

Saunders, who struggled shooting at Nebraska, is BYU’s best outside shooter but was 2 of 9 from the 3-point line against this ACC foe.

“That will get better,” said Young.

It is important for Baker to get healed and ready to play soon, said Young. “I like what we can do with him and AJ out there at the same time.”