One word: domination.
BYU throttled Arizona State 104-76 Wednesday night at the Marriott Center, moving to 14-1 on the season and 2-0 in Big 12 play.
3 takeaways
BYU’s “Big 3″ was outrageous. Against the Sun Devils, AJ Dybantsa, Richie Saunders and Rob Wright III enjoyed their best collective performance to date.
Of BYU’s 104 points, 81 came from the aforementioned trio. For comparison, Arizona State scored 76 points as a team.
Saunders put up a career-high 31 points to pair with eight rebounds, shooting 10 of 13 from the field with six made 3-pointers.
Dybantsa recorded his eighth straight outing of 20+ points, finishing with 23 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Wright added another 27 points and four assists, shooting 9 of 15 from the field.
The Cougars got off to a hot start and never looked back. Tied at 6-6 after two minutes of play, BYU proceeded to orchestrate a 10-0 run to practically bury the Sun Devils for good.
So often a slow starting group this year, the Cougars led by 15 points at halftime and ended up winning by a 28-point margin, good for one of their biggest Big 12 blowout wins thus far in three seasons.
In fact, prior to Wednesday, BYU had never crossed the 100-point mark against a fellow Big 12 foe.
In addition to the early 10-0 stretch, the Cougars managed three separate 7-0 runs as well.
Led by the heroics of Dybantsa, Saunders and Wright, BYU shot a collective 57.4% from the field and 45.2% from the 3-point line while dishing out 19 assists.
BYU’s defense continues to impress. On a night where BYU football’s new defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga was introduced at the Marriott Center, it was only fitting that the Cougars on the hardwood showed off some excellent defense.
BYU held Arizona State to a 37.8% mark from the field, with the Sun Devils coughing up 15 total turnovers to produce 22 Cougar points.
Even with starting big man Keba Keita sidelined with an injury, BYU still swatted 10 shots, with five coming from Abdullah Ahmed in his first career start as a Cougar.