Former Baylor guard Rob Wright and BYU sidekick AJ Dybantsa combined for 66 points as No. 22 BYU snapped its four-game losing skid with a 99-94 win over Baylor in Waco Tuesday night
WACO, Texas — BYU point guard Rob Wright was public enemy number one Tuesday night in his return to Baylor, booed when he stepped onto the Foster Pavilion floor for pregame warmups and then every time he touched the basketball, from beginning to end of the pivotal Big 12 clash pitting teams desperate for midseason wins.
Then the sophomore and freshman superstar AJ Dybantsa ensured that Wright’s second departure from Waco would be remembered as much as his first, both playing all 40 minutes to get No. 22 and reeling BYU a victory it absolutely had to have.
Dybantsa netted 36 points on efficient 14 of 20 shooting, while Wright added a career-high 30 points on 12 of 21 shooting as BYU took control of the contest in the second half and held off a furious Baylor rally to knock off the Bears 99-94 in front of 7,371 thoroughly entertained fans.
How badly did BYU (6-5, 18-6) need this win to avoid putting up its first five-game losing skid since 2005?
“That goes without saying,” said coach Kevin Young. “We needed it extremely bad.”
Added Dybantsa, who staged a ferocious scoring contest with fellow freshman Tounde Yessoufou of Baylor, who had a career-high 37 points: “I came in (with intensity) just because I wanted to get Rob the win, just like we got the win for Keba (Keita) and Richie (Saunders) down there in Utah and at home. It was kind of the same thing.”
Wright added three assists, four rebounds and four steals, with just two turnovers, while never leaving the court.
“Honestly, I just wanted to get a win. I mean, coming in here for shootaround, I didn’t really feel nothing,” he said. “When we came out to warm up, there was like a little emotion seeing some old managers and coaches that coached me here. So I’m just glad that we got a win, I’ll be honest. And it was good to see some (familiar) faces.”
The third wheel in BYU’s big three, senior wing Saunders, added 15 points and nine rebounds — four of those caroms on the offensive end — but struggled through an off shooting night (6 of 14, including 0 of 5 from 3-point range) in the face of Baylor’s sticky defense.
Kennard Davis Jr. added 12 points and was 6 of 7 from the free-throw line. Davis, Dybantsa and Wright all went 2-for-2 from the free-throw line in the final minute after Baylor had cut a 17-point BYU lead with just over four minutes remaining to five with 58 seconds left.
“You never know in the Big 12,” Young said. “Every game is hard, every team has good players and good coaching and a good atmosphere. … So give them credit for extending the game of at the end. “But I love the fact that our guys show resiliency on the road after things have been (suboptimal) for us. To have that kind of poise and determination to withstand that and flat-out get a win, I am proud of them for that.”
Simply put, BYU won this game in the paint, outscoring the home team 64-40 down low and shooting 56% from the floor. With Keba Keita in foul trouble, Young turned to sub Khadim Mboup and the redshirt freshman delivered a solid performance, grabbing 10 rebounds and enabling BYU to guard five out, when needed.
“At the end of the day, we wanted them to make the jump shots, but they ended up beating us (in the paint),” said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose squad also staged a last-minute rally three nights ago at No. 5 Iowa State before falling 72-69 in Ames.
Another key was turnovers, as the Cougars took much better care of the ball than the Bears did. BYU scored 24 points off 13 Baylor turnovers — Drew noted that the Bears had just nine giveaways three nights ago against a much more pressure-focused team at ISU — and Baylor had just six points off five BYU turnovers.
“Just 11 turnovers total in our last two games (only five against Houston in the 77-66 loss), and we shot 3 of 19 and scored 99 points,” Young said. “That’s crazy. … You know, when the 3s start falling for us, the lid is going to blow off this thing.”
The Cougars got off to a decent start for one of the rare times on the road this season, and had a 13-12 lead six minutes into the game.
Then Baylor started hitting everything — literally, everything — it put up and BYU’s offense sagged. The Bears made nine straight shots, and 11 of 12, to race out to a 33-21 lead with 8:32 left in the half, prompting a BYU timeout.
Whatever defensive changes Young made at the time worked, as the Bears misfired on their next four possessions and the Cougars crept back in it.
BYU closed the half on a 20-8 run to tie it at 41-41 at the break.
Dybantsa led BYU with 18 at the half, while Wright chipped in 15. When he was at the free-throw line, Baylor students chanted “traitor, traitor” in response to the point guard leaving the program last spring and signing with BYU.
Six days ago, BYU wilted in the second half, especially defensively, in the 99-92 loss to Oklahoma State in Stillwater. The effort was much better Tuesday night in Waco, although they could never slow down Yessoufou, projected to be a possible NBA first-round pick.
Leading scorer Cameron Carr added 24 for the Bears.
“Some high-level stuff going on with all three of them,” Young said, referring to Wright, Dybantsa and Yessoufou. “I thought AJ was unreal — not just the points, but seven assists and one turnover. And then Rob just controlled the game. That was a heavyweight fight, and there was a lot of talent out there.”
It was the first Division I college basketball game since 2014 in which two freshmen had 35-plus points; It was just the third such game in 30 years.
Dybantsa’s two free throws — he was 7 of 8 from the line — with 4:18 remaining gave BYU an 85-68 lead, but Baylor kept coming, got a few favorable whistles down the stretch, and got the crowd back in it, at least those at Foster Pavilion who weren’t dressed in blue and chanting “B-Y-U, B-Y-U” so loudly that arena officials started playing loud music to drown out their cheers.
“We were able to come back, for a large part, because of them,” Drew said of Baylor’s crowd.
As for Wright’s big game, Drew noted that “there was a reason why we loved him here last year.”
Meanwhile, Young said BYU made a little progress defensively, but still shouldn’t be giving up 90-plus points per game.
“If you are referencing the Oklahoma State game, yes, our defense was better,” he said. “Not by much, but it was better.”
And it was good enough on this night, even if the villain rode in and stole the show.
Category: General Sports
