Analysis: The most-anticipated season in BYU history ends in discouraging fashion for cold-shooting Cougars

PORTLAND, Ore. — The most-anticipated season in BYU basketball history came to a crushing halt Thursday night at Moda Center, as No. 11 seed Texas used its superior size and shot-making ability to send the No. 6 seed Cougars out of the NCAA Tournament and into an offseason of wondering what might have been.

With supposedly better-rested BYU leading for only 22 seconds, Texas dominated the glass and doubled BYU’s 3-point production to win the first-round game 79-71 and advance to its third game this week after having downed North Carolina State 68-66 less than 48 hours ago.

“It just sucks. It hurts,” BYU freshman star AJ Dybantsa said after scoring a game-high 35 points on 11-of-25 shooting in what quite likely was the last game of his single-season college career.

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Dybantsa declined several opportunities to say for sure whether he will now turn his attention to the NBA draft as a probable top-three pick, but it will be a massive surprise if he returns to BYU.

“I don’t even know the answer to that question. I can’t answer that,” he said in a stone-cold silent BYU locker room after the Cougars finished what some thought might be a chance at a Final Four run with a disappointing 23-12 record.

Later, at the news conference flanked by coach Kevin Young, injured senior Richie Saunders and sophomore Rob Wright, Dybantsa said he needs to consult with his mother, Chelsea, “the boss of the family,” before giving a final answer on his future.

If Thursday’s performance proved anything, it was that Dybantsa couldn’t carry the Cougars by himself, as hard as he tried, and as much as he was needed to while playing 40 minutes.

Wright added 14 points on 7-of-17 shooting in 37 minutes, but no other Cougar reached double figures; Kennard Davis Jr. — who told the Deseret News that he plans to return to BYU next year — had nine points on 3-of-5 shooting, and Aleksej Kostic chipped in eight, but was 2 of 7 from 3-point range.

The reasons why BYU lost another first-round game in the Big Dance were numerous, but the biggest one was Texas center Matas Vokietaitis, a 7-foot sophomore from Lithuania who played the game of his life.

He had a double-double in the first half and finished with 23 points on 10-of-17 shooting and 16 rebounds.

BYU simply had no answer for him, as senior center Keba Keita fouled out trying to stop him, going to the bench for the final time as a Cougar with just five points and four rebounds.

“Yeah, he’s tough,” Dybantsa said of Vokietaitis. “I think he got a double-double (11 rebounds and 15 points) in the first half. That kind of hurt us. … Him getting offensive rebounds kind of sparked their energy.”

The Longhorns won the rebounding battle 40-31, including a whopping 16 offensive rebounds, and had 16 second-chance points.

About the only thing Vokietaitis didn’t do well was shoot free throws. Vokietaitis missed all seven free throws he attempted in the second half, enabling BYU to make a late charge.

The Longhorns (20-14) led by as many as 17 points in the second half — 68-51 — before BYU put on one of its patented late-game runs.

But it was too little, too late.

If there was a knock on Dybantsa this season from BYU fans, it was that the country’s leading scorer could never come up with the really big shots when they were needed the most.

Case in point: After Keita hit two free throws to trim the deficit to 72-66, Keita came up with a big block on the other end and was in a positive groove.

Dybantsa got a rare open look at a 3-pointer, but couldn’t hit it; Keita subsequently fouled Vokietaitis and was disqualified with five fouls.

“Second-chance points killed us,” Wright said. “It got guys in foul trouble. I think (the reason they lost) was that.”

Texas’ Jordan Pope, an Oregon State transfer, then made the shot of the game, a 3-pointer from the corner to give the Horns a 75-68 lead.

Later, after Kostic hit a triple to trim the deficit to 75-71 with 1:17 remaining, the Cougars got the ball back still trailing by four after Vokietaitis missed a front end opportunity from the free-throw line.

However, Dybantsa committed his fifth turnover, and BYU’s seventh, while trying to drop a pass into Khadim Mboup that went out of bounds.

Vokietaitis also swatted a Wright offering with 23 seconds remaining and Texas up by four.

“We never gave up,” Wright said. “It is March, comebacks happen all the time.”

But not on this night. Not when the Cougars were suffering through one of their worst 3-point shooting performances of the season.

They finished 4 of 22 from deep (18%), while Texas was 8 of 22 (36%).

“We definitely shoot the (3) ball at a high clip, so the fact that they weren’t falling hurt,” said Dybantsa, who was 1 of 7 from beyond the arc.

“Me personally, I didn’t see that as like a downfall. You can still attack the rim. We have guys who can attack the rim relentlessly. We should have done that more.”

BYU’s defensive effort, particularly in the first half, was also spotty. It looked nothing like the group that stonewalled West Virginia and then slowed down powerful Houston in the Big 12 tournament.

Texas got almost anything it wanted in the first half, going 5 of 11 from 3-point range and getting 22 points in the paint. Vokietaitis had his way near the rim in the first half, scoring 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

The Lithuanian had seven offensive rebounds in the first half alone, and Texas had 12 second-chance points before the break.

“Extremely disappointed that he basically manhandled our whole team in the first half,” BYU coach Kevin Young said.

BYU missed its first eight 3-point attempts of the game before Davis Jr. hit a 3-pointer with eight seconds left in the half. Alas, Texas pushed the ball down the floor quickly and got a triple from Tuesday’s hero, Tramon Mark, to take a 46-37 halftime lead.

Mark finished with 19 points, while Dailyn Swain had 14 and Jordan Pope 11.

Wright shook free for a layup to get the Cougar crowd off its feet midway through the first half, giving BYU a 21-20 lead. But the advantage lasted for only 22 seconds, as Pope drained a 3 after a timeout, and BYU never really recovered, missing its next seven shots.

Texas out-rebounded BYU 21-11 in the first half, as Vokietaitis had as many boards (11) as BYU’s entire team.

“I was disappointed in our first half defensive effort and intensity, and rebounding,” Young said. “I thought that’s where the game (was won). We knew the game was going to get won there.

“That’s all we talked about, was the rebounding, coming into the game. That was a little disappointing. Not a little, a lot disappointing.”

In many respects, that was a good way to sum up the Cougars’ season, highly anticipated, or not.