Analysis: BYU makes the ‘Wright’ plays down the stretch to eke out win over rival Utah

The first of two meetings between nationally ranked BYU and upset-minded Utah wasn’t particularly well played, but it will go down in the history of the rivalry as the one in which floppy haired BYU star Richie Saunders did everything he could to finally pull out a win at the Huntsman Center.

Call it a much-deserved curtain call for one of the most accomplished Cougars who had never tasted victory in Salt Lake City until Saturday night.

And the other two members of BYU’s “Big 3” — freshman AJ Dybantsa and sophomore Robert Wright III — weren’t bad either in their first taste of the rivalry and the raucous dome on the Hill.

But this one was for Saunders, along with fellow senior Keba Keita, the former Ute, and two other seniors who couldn’t play — Dawson Baker and Jared McGregor.

Saunders patched up the last hole in his tremendous BYU resume with 24 points and 14 rebounds on 9 of 16 shooting, Wright chipped in 23 and took over down the stretch and Dybantsa was his usual consistent self as No. 9 BYU held off upset-minded Utah 89-84 in front of an almost evenly split crowd of 15,588 in Salt Lake City on Saturday night.

Six of Saunders’ rebounds came on the offensive end, four in the second half, as he prolonged several possession in crunch time.

“Richie’s will to win is like nothing I have ever been around,” said BYU coach Kevin Young. “We all wanted to get a win for him here his senior year. He was just possessed, man, in a good way. He just wasn’t going to lose.”

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Saunders, one of the few Utahns on No. 9 BYU’s roster, was 0-2 in the Huntsman Center entering the Big 12 affair, and both of those losses were razor close.

Basically, the Utes outplayed the favored Cougars down the stretch in those two games, especially last year when the home team rode off with a one-point overtime victory.

Utah won that game because it was better from the free-throw line, and for some brief moments Saturday it appeared that history was going to repeat itself.

After Moo Davis hit two free throws with 6:46 remaining to give BYU a 76-70 lead and some breathing room, the Cougars suddenly went cold at the line.

Saunders missed two, then Abdullah Ahmed and Dybantsa missed front ends. However, Dybantsa ended the drought by making one of two with 3:35 left to go to give BYU a 81-78 lead. Meanwhile, Terrence Brown (25 points) and Dom McHenry (21 points) made a pair each to keep the Utes close.

Through it all, the difference was Wright, the Baylor transfer who can get to the rim almost at will and gives BYU a luxury it has rarely had.

Wright scored six points in the final five minutes, and also set up Keita (11 points, seven rebounds) for an inside bucket with just over a minute left that gave BYU an insurmountable 87-82 lead.

After Davis and Keita forced Utah into a turnover with eight seconds left — it appeared that the Cougars were trying to foul, holding onto a 3-point lead — Saunders clinched it with two free throws.

It was BYU’s 12th straight win, tied for the eighth-longest winning streak in the country.

Utah has lost four straight and five of six, but if the Utes can replicate the effort they gave against the Cougs, they should be able to pull off a few upsets in the Big 12.

“It’s amazing,” Saunders said. “We came up here and came up short in overtime, lost by one, lost by two (the previous year). To be able to finish this time, it is amazing.”

With Utah students chanting “overrated” every time he touched the ball, Dybantsa still proved vital to the Cougars’ success, often drawing two or three defenders and getting open shots for Wright, Saunders and the others.

Both teams made six 3-pointers.

“Boy, that was crazy. That was super hostile,” said Dybantsa, who also had six rebounds and four assists. “Besides my high school rivalry days, that’s probably, like, the most hostile environment I’ve been in. A ‘welcome to the Big 12 moment’ came for me.”

BYU entered as a 14-point favorite, and still has never lost a Quad 3 game under Young (5-0 last season, 4-0 this season).

Utah (0-3, 9-8) dropped to 0-5 in Quad 1 opportunities this season, but man, oh man the Utes threw a major scare into the Cougars, beginning with the opening tip.

BYU got off to a brutal start, allowing the pro-Utah portion of the crowd to get going early. The Cougars had a turnover, a missed dunk and a missed 3-pointer on their first three possessions, and the Utes gained some needed confidence early.

BYU recovered despite some early foul problems from Keita and led by as many as six points in the first half, but the Cougars’ defense was shaky for almost the entire first 20 minutes, and Utah’s open shots started falling as the half wore on.

BYU’s Big 3 accounted for 33 of BYU’s 45 points in the first 20 minutes.

The Cougars committed seven turnovers in the first half, Utah just two. The Utes turned those turnovers into eight points, and also had 10 second-chance points in the first half.

BYU led 45-43 at the break.

The first five minutes of the second half were huge for BYU, as the Cougars got Dybantsa going and started to pull away. BYU scored on six straight possessions to take a 59-47 lead.

But Utah wouldn’t go away. Young and the Cougars were not surprised.

“It was a hard-fought game, which we knew it would be,” Young said. “Rivalry games are like that for a reason. It makes it super fun. … There’s nothing better as a competitor to go into somebody else’s building and beat them in their building, especially somebody that there is a long-standing rivalry with.”

Young said he pulled Dybantsa, Davis and “just kind of whispered to them” how important the game was to BYU fans everywhere, and the seniors such as Saunders and Keita.

“You didn’t grow up hating Utah, or having a rivalry, with all due respect, of course, in a nice way,” Young told the newcomers. “But this means a ton to our university.”

So the Cougars are now 3-6 in their last nine games at the Huntsman Center, and the last time they won here until Saturday night their roster included future Utes Caleb Lohner and Gavin Baxter and they won 75-64 in November of 2021.

This one also marked what should be many battles between former NBA assistants Young and Utah’s Alex Jensen.

“I give Alex credit. That was very NBA of him to come out and try to not let the best player beat you,” Young said. “I thought AJ did a good job of getting to his spot and getting fouled. He went to the line 12 times, so our other guys really stepped up.”

Utah’s bench outscored BYU’s bench 18-3, and the Utes stayed close by getting 15 points off 11 BYU turnovers.

James Okonkwo had 13 rebounds although BYU won the rebounding battle 41-33, thanks primarily to Saunders, who was coming off a career-high 31-point outing against Arizona State.