KISSIMMEE, Fla. — BYU has won the ESPN Events Invitational championship.
The Cougars put together another second half rally to outlast Dayton 83-79 Friday night at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World, capturing the event title and moving to 6-1 on the season.
3 takeaways
BYU rode yet another second half surge. At this point it’s probably safe to just call the Cougars a second half team.
Similar to Thursday’s outing against Miami, BYU trailed at the conclusion of Friday’s first half but exploded out of intermission.
The Cougars opened the second half against Dayton on a 26-4 run, including a stretch of 15 unanswered points after the Flyers opened the period with a 3-pointer.
Dayton did fight back to tie the score at 70 with just over three minutes left and pulled within two points of BYU in the final seconds, but Richie Saunders and AJ Dybantsa provided clutch crunch time buckets to ensure a Cougars’ victory.
BYU made just eight field goals in the first half, but in the first seven minutes of play after halftime, the Cougars sunk 11 shots.
In all, BYU scored 53 second half points, shooting 65.6% from the field and 63.6% from 3-point range in the latter frame.
Richie Saunders highlighted a stellar showing for BYU’s “Big 3.” Against Dayton, Saunders, AJ Dybantsa and Rob Wright III combined for 70 of BYU’s 83 points.
Saunders earned tournament MVP honors after scoring a career-high 29 points with eight rebounds, two assists, three steals and six made 3-pointers Friday.
Wright provided another 23 points on 9 of 16 shooting with three boards, two steals and six assists.
Dybantsa shook off a slow start to score 18 points — 13 coming after halftime — with four rebounds and three assists.
None of BYU’s bench players scored a single point. Of the Cougars’ 83 points, all of them came from their starters.
The aforementioned trio of Saunders, Dybantsa and Wright — the “Brig 3,” if you will — scored 70 points, with Keba Keita posting eight and Kennard Davis Jr. adding another five.
Only four other Cougars took the floor against Dayton, and they combined for just three total field goal attempts and no makes. Khadim Mboup did, however, grab six rebounds on the defensive glass.
The lack of bench production comes a day after Dawson Baker went down with what appeared to be a serious lower body injury. Baker was in a wheelchair on Friday, and though no official announcement has been made yet, it feels as if BYU could be without his services for an extended period, if not the remainder of the season.
The potential loss of Baker means the Cougars will be without one of their best veteran pieces and shooters, with neither role simple to replace.
Perhaps Friday was a one-off in terms of bench invisibility, but BYU can’t afford to lean so much on its starting five for all of Big 12 play. Others in the rotation need to step up to provide Kevin Young’s unit the depth it desperately needs.