What Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said after a wild win against BYU

With a minute left to play Monday night against BYU, No. 1 Arizona led by 10 points, having previously held a 19-point advantage earlier in the second half.

But the Cougars stormed back with a 11-2 run over the next 40 seconds, possessing the ball down one point with a chance to win as 12 seconds remained on the clock.

BYU point guard Rob Wright III drove down low for the potential game-winning layup, only to be swatted away by Arizona’s Brayden Burries to seal a dramatic 86-83 victory for the Wildcats.

It was BYU’s first loss at the Marriott Center since Arizona’s last visit to Provo in February of 2025, with the Wildcats improving to 21-0 on the season to tie for the best start in program history.

“Obviously great game, great environment,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd told reporters after the game. “BYU is a tough place to win, and we knew it was going to be a real challenge. I thought for long stretches in the game, we played great.

“... They had the ball with 11 seconds to go (up) one, and Brayden came up with a big time defensive play and got the rebound and made two free throws. It’s a big time finish for us. We’ve been talking a lot about that from going back to this summer that there’s going to be some games that come down to getting one stop and and then we haven’t been in a lot of them, so it was great to experience that and have it come out our way.“

Burries led the Wildcat charge with 29 points, and senior Jaden Bradley added another 26 points — his personal best against a conference foe — on 10 of 15 shooting.

“Jaden is playing at an All-American level all year and I don’t need to be the one promoting that,” Lloyd said of Bradley. “That’s obvious. The thing that’s not talked about enough is how much better he’s gotten over the course of his college career. JB gets all the credit for that.

“He has incredible character, he’s a hard-worker. He waited his turn and was patient. For a kid that was highly ranked like he was, he stuck to a process and he and his family get a lot of credit for that. I think because he stuck with that process he is going to be rewarded with a great, long basketball career.”

Although AJ Dybantsa did score 24 points, he had one of the least efficient outings of his career, making just 6 of 24 total shots and missing seven 3-pointers against Arizona’s Big 12-best defense.

Additionally, the Wildcats held Wright to just seven points on 3 of 16 shooting.

“AJ is really good,” Lloyd said of Dybantsa, who he coached this past summer for Team USA in the FIBA U19 World Cup. “You can do a great job on AJ and he can still score 30. He’s a really unique player in college, we haven’t seen a lot of guys like him that are so proficient at getting fouled. It makes for a tough guard.

“None of our guys have played against him in a college setting and he is continuing to get better. Once we got through the initial feel of how to guard him, I thought our guys did a pretty good job.”

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With the win, Arizona picks up its first marquee Big 12 victory, with future matchups at Kansas, against Texas Tech, at Houston and a rematch with BYU still on the horizon in the Wildcats’ quest for the conference crown.

“We wanted this challenge for our team,” Lloyd said. “This was a great opportunity for us, win or lose, and we approached it as such. It was a quick turnaround because we played Saturday and we were only able to walk through on Sunday. Our guys get a lot of credit and our coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for the preparation. We made one more play than they did tonight where it felt like for stretches we made a lot more plays than them, but they were able to close the gap.”

“... Great environment, super impressed with BYU’s team. Coach (Kevin) Young’s a great coach, doing a great job. We were fortunate enough to make one more play than them tonight, and I’m looking forward to a couple days off.”