TUCSON, Ariz. — BYU’s pair of matchups with Arizona this season have each followed a similar narrative.
The Cougars trail by a mile in the second half, but just when it seems like a blowout loss is imminent, they orchestrate a late surge to set up final minute drama in the hopes of securing a season-altering, historic upset victory over one of the country’s elite squads.
But in each instance, a happy ending has eluded BYU, with the most recent letdown occurring Wednesday night at McKale Center in Tucson as the No. 4-ranked Wildcats held on for a 75-68 win and the season sweep of the Cougars.
Despite riding consecutive victories into Wednesday, BYU now falls to 19-7 on the season and 7-6 in Big 12 play, having lost 6 of its last 9 outings.
“We’re going through it,” BYU head coach Kevin Young told reporters postgame. “... That’s life, you get adversity. I’m proud of our guys for their effort tonight and their effort in practice the last couple days. We’re trying to reinvent ourselves kind of on the fly. I think there’s a lot of good things that happened tonight.”
Wednesday saw BYU cut a 16-point deficit to just five with a little more than a minute remaining, drawing flashbacks to when the Cougars shrank Arizona’s 10-point lead to one in the final minute of the schools’ previous matchup in Provo three weeks ago.
But as mentioned before, neither comeback resulted in a win.
In BYU’s first meeting with Arizona, Rob Wright III had his game-winning shot attempt blocked in the final seconds. In Wednesday’s rematch, he was stripped in the lane with less than 40 seconds left for a turnover to all but extinguish the rally.
But the true story of the night came at the 3-point line, where Richie Saunders-less BYU went ice cold and Arizona seemingly couldn’t miss.
The Cougars shot 5 of 19 (26%) from deep, while the Wildcats made 8 of their final 13 triples as part of a collective 43% shooting night.
It was the first time all season Arizona had scored more points from 3-pointers (27) than shots in the paint (26) — a major curveball considering the Wildcats are one of the least 3-heavy teams in the country, but a necessary pivot considering they were without their star inside man Koa Peat.
Anthony Dell’Orso led Arizona’s sweet-shooting charge, sinking four 3-pointers as part of a 22-point career night off the bench for the typical sub-30% deep shooter from Australia.
“We said that they were gonna have to make threes to beat us, and they did,” Young said. “We wanted to make other guys beat us. You have to give Dell’Orso credit, he hasn’t had a great year. Statistically, he shot the heck out of the ball tonight, so you have to give him credit.
“Was I surprised by it? Yes, I was. But it’s like, shots go in, and you gotta keep competing. You just have to give their guys credit for stepping up and knocking them down.”
Trying to help fill the scoring void left by Saunders, AJ Dybantsa put up his sixth 30-point performance of the year, totaling 35 points on 13 of 28 shooting while breaking Danny Ainge’s longstanding BYU freshman season scoring record.
“I’m just trying to be aggressive early,” Dybantsa said. “Obviously, Richie’s out, he brings a lot scoring, a lot of aggressiveness, so I just tried to mimic what he gave us and tried to instill it in me since we’re down a guy.”
But outside of Dybantsa and Wright, who added 13 points of his own, BYU’s eight other players to take the floor combined for just 20 points, only producing six total bench points and without a single made 3-pointer from a non-starter.
Mihailo Boskovic, starting in place of Saunders, missed all three shots he took and finished with a plus/minus of minus six in 11 minutes of play.
Off the bench, Aleksej Kostic shot 1 of 3 with two turnovers, and Tyler Mrus missed his only shot attempt of the night.
“Tyler and Alex need to come in and knock shots down, Mihailo’s got to knock shots down,” Young said. “But, you know, AJ and Rob have been our catalysts all year, and will continue to be, and we’ll try to continue to examine where we can get help from other guys and put them in positions where they can also be effective. But it’s just the hand we’re dealt right now.”
Keba Keita broke out of his recent slump by grabbing nine rebounds and swatting four blocks, but Arizona still grabbed 12 offensive boards — to score 11 second chance points — and won the rebound battle by a 39-32 margin.
Additionally, Kennard Davis Jr. blossomed late, scoring 10 points in the second half, as Young hopes to further unlock his production down the stretch.
“I give him a lot of credit because in a lot of ways, you know, he was brought in here to do a role that was a lot different than the role he had last year (at Southern Illinois),” Young said of Davis. “We were trying to use him as a 3-and-D, kind of catch-and-shoot guy, and really he’s got a lot more to offer than that. So in a lot of ways, I’ve kind of held him hostage, and now he’s free to make a lot more plays, and we’re gonna need every bit of it.”
We’ll have to wait and see if the shorthanded Cougars’ fight on Wednesday sparks any new success going forward, especially as No. 6 Iowa State comes to Provo this weekend.
But for now, Wednesday is just another loss in the standings — and another missed opportunity for a signature upset win.
“(I’m) super disappointed we weren’t able to get the win, but we got a locker room that’s not gonna go away, I can tell you that right now, and it’s gonna be a dogfight every time you play BYU,” Young said. “We’re gonna keep pounding that rock, man, until it breaks, and it will break for us eventually.”