Why did the No. 9 Cougars struggle to put away the so-so Utes?

Forgive BYU point guard Rob Wright III for being a little bit surprised when he ran out onto the Huntsman Center court for Saturday night’s basketball rivalry game between the No. 9 Cougars and homestanding Utes.

“The last time I played Utah there were no fans here,” the Baylor transfer told the BYU Sports Radio Network after scoring 23 points and dishing out six assists in BYU’s 89-84 win in front of 15,558 nerve-wracked fans.

Welcome to the rivalry, Rob, where records and statistics and all those things can really be thrown out the window, as the saying goes.

As 14-point underdogs and spurred by the biggest showing of Utah students in recent memory, the Utes (0-3, 8-8) pushed the No. 9 Cougars to the bitter end, rallying from a 13-point deficit to within a point with 3:15 remaining.

“I usually get into stats, this and that, but stats don’t matter in a game like this,” said BYU coach Kevin Young. “I thought it was a good, hard-fought win.”

Young said he knew it would be a tough place to get a win, regardless of the Utes’ so-so record and now four-game losing streak, because of what happened last year.

A similarly talented BYU team lost 73-72 in overtime in Young’s first taste of the rivalry at the Huntsman Center.

“Rivalry games are like that for a reason,” Young said. “It makes it super fun. I agree with AJ (Dybantsa), that it was just a fun environment.

“There is nothing better as a competitor to go into somebody else’s building and beat them in their building, especially when it is against someone you have a long-standing rivalry with.”

It was a ‘welcome to the Big 12’ moment for me

—  BYU star AJ Dybantsa on atmosphere at Utah

The rematch is on Jan. 24 at the Marriott Center (3:30 p.m. MST, FOX), and BYU will probably be heavily favored and trying not to look past the Utes and to a showdown with now-No. 1 and undefeated Arizona in Provo two days later (Jan. 26).

Before then, the Cougars — who have won 12 straight games and 11 straight Big 12 regular-season games — play host to TCU (1-2, 11-5) on Wednesday and then travel to No. 14 Texas Tech on Saturday.

Even with thousands and thousands of BYU fans in attendance — it appeared to this observer that the crowd was about half BYU, half Utah — Dybantsa said it was the most hostile environment he’s faced since his high school days.

“It was a ‘welcome to the Big 12’ moment for me,” the teenager said after scoring 20 points on 6 of 11 shooting from the field and 8 of 12 shooting from the free-throw line.

Dybantsa has now scored 20 or more points in nine straight games, the most for a Big 12 freshman since Oklahoma’s Trae Young did it in 2017-18.

Also, Dybantsa became the first Division I freshman in the last 30 seasons to have nine straight 20-plus point games on 50% field-goal shooting, according to ESPN Research.

Utah students did their best to rattle Dybantsa, with little success.

“I have been dealing with that since I was 13. I have been getting hate comments, hate phrases, sayings, during games,” he said.

“I have heard it all so I just need to play my game and make the right decisions.”

BYU remained at No. 9 in the NET rankings Sunday, while Utah jumped from 143 to 133.

That means Saturday’s victory becomes a Quad 2 win for BYU, because road wins against teams 76-135 in the NET are considered Quad 2 wins.

With Wisconsin moving from 53 to 40 in the NET after upsetting previously undefeated Michigan Saturday, BYU’s 98-70 win over the Badgers at the Delta Center back on Nov. 21 is now a Quad 1 win, giving BYU five of those.

So why did the high-flying Cougars, who walloped Arizona State 104-76 last Wednesday at the Marriott Center, struggle to put away the Utes? For starters, it was a rivalry game, as previously mentioned, on Utah’s home floor.

They are almost always tight, and chaotic, and when BYU’s Keba Keita got in foul trouble in the first half, the tenor changed.

The Cougars also missed 10 free throws, including two front ends in the final six minutes.

“I mean, there is no scheme for making free throws. Either you step up and make them, or you don’t. That’s the bottom line,” Young said.

“I trust all of our guys to make free throws in the big moments, and that is something we gotta continue to work on, which we will.”

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