At one point Saturday night, BYU trailed UConn by 20 points, with little hope of avoiding a blowout loss.
But with less than a minute left to play, the Cougars had the chance to tie the contest after a brilliant second-half showing, before ultimately falling 86-84 to the No. 3-ranked Huskies at TD Garden in Boston.
Such a comeback effort impressed UConn head coach Dan Hurley, who sees big things ahead for BYU’s program under Kevin Young.
“They obviously closed the game on a heck of a run, but when you got, you know, (Richie) Saunders, (Rob Wright) and (AJ) Dybantsa, you got three guys like that on the perimeter, that’s some serious firepower,” Hurley told reporters postgame. “But, you know, I thought we looked like an awesome team for 25 minutes. Obviously the last 15 minutes we just kind of hung on and weren’t very good against pressure.
“But I credit BYU, those guys showed some real fight today. They could have walked out of here, lost by 20 easily, but those guys dug their heels in and showed, that (Young) is a heck of a coach, and they’ve got a real culture and a real chance to compete for championships.”
Coming from a two-time national champion, that’s pretty high praise.
Hurley also had a lot to say about Dybantsa, who erupted for 21 second-half points to help lead BYU back into the ballgame.
“That’s as high a level of shot making as you’re going to see in college basketball,” Hurley said of Dybantsa. “... He had the whole bag going tonight.”
In all, Dybantsa posted 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting with six rebounds, two made 3-pointers — including a crazy make in the final minute — and two steals, becoming the story of the night despite BYU’s narrow loss.
“I mean, this guy’s out there guarding, he’s on the backboard. He’s communicating with his teammates. I mean, he’s playing with a level of desperation to win the game,” Hurley said of Dybantsa.
“For a guy that’s going to be maybe the number one pick, it’s just a little refreshing to see the guy and the mental toughness. I mean, his first half was a mess. For him to be able to put that behind him back home and put on that second-half performance, it was as good as you’ll see from a freshman, and I told him that.”
