BYU basketball: Cougars rely on their defense to throttle Wyoming at the Delta Center

Whenever BYU and former conference rival Wyoming tangle in any sport, the results are never all that pretty for either side.

So when BYU star Richie Saunders collided with Wyoming’s Jordan Nesbitt early in Saturday night’s nonconference basketball game in front of 11,217 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City and got the worst of it, suffering a bloody and lacerated lip that would keep him out the remainder of the contest, it appeared it was going to be another one of those classic Cougars-Cowboys contests.

BYU’s defense, led by specialist Mawot Mag, a seldom-used transfer from Rutgers, had other ideas.

Not known for its defensive prowess in its previous nine games, BYU upped the intensity on that end of the floor almost the entire 40 minutes and ran away with a 68-49 win to improve to 8-2 and push its winning streak over Wyoming to 15 games.

The 49 points tied 5-5 Wyoming’s lowest output of the season, the other coming in a 96-49 loss at Texas Tech.

“It was a good win. I thought our defensive execution was outstanding. They are a team that gets to the line quite a bit,” said BYU coach Kevin Young.

““I thought we forced them into some shots that they are not comfortable taking, then kept them off the free-throw line. That was really the key to the game. I am happy with the defensive execution more than anything.”

With BYU leading 4-0 and Saunders heading to the locker room with head athletic trainer Rob Ramos, Young turned to Dawson Baker and then Mag, and the duo displayed the depth that the Cougars will need to rely on all the more when they get into Big 12 play.

Young called Mag’s performance “inspiring” and said it was the difference in the game. The graduate transfer who was raised in Australia had season-highs across the board: 11 points (on 4 of 5 shooting), three rebounds in 23 minutes.

“I just told the team that it was (huge),” Young said. “He has been dealt a tough hand here, coming back off an injury and he just hasn’t found his footing, and I have not given him much opportunity to find his footing, so he has had to grind through stuff as a guy who has played major minutes at a major college basketball level and has had a great attitude and it was just really inspiring what he did.”

Wyoming would appear to be rather average by Mountain West standards, but consider that the Cowboys lost their last three games by a combined seven points, and on Dec. 4 in Logan, they pushed undefeated Utah State to the brink before the Aggies won, 70-67.

Offensively, the Cowboys are on the explosive side despite playing at a slower pace than most opponents BYU has faced this season. Obi Agbim scored a game-high 21 points, but no other Cowboys reached double figures.

“His defense was tremendous,” Young said of Mag, “and they were daring him to shoot shots. He took good shots and made them (3 of 4 from 3-point range for the career 27% 3-point shooter). “That kid he was guarding out there is a good player. I thought our guys rallied around it and it was a cool moment for our team.”

What was the key to Mag’s success?

“Just staying ready. Coach always tries to tell us if things are not going your way, just stay ready,” Mag said. “It is a long season and we have a lot of talent.

“There can only be a certain amount of people on the floor. Just stay ready and get better every day and just wait your turn because you never know.”

With freshman Egor Demin watching from the bench for the second straight game with a knee contusion and Saunders exiting early, it fell upon Trevin Knell and Baker to pick up the scoring slack, and that’s what they did.

Knell went 6 for 7 for 15 points in 28 minutes, while Baker had 11 points, five rebounds and two assists. Young said Saunders “will continue to be evaluated” and didn’t have any other details on the injury that drew blood and silenced the Delta Center crowd for a good minute before he was helped to his feet.

“Richie’s injury was unfortunate, but everybody stepped up, including myself and Eli (Crawford),” Mag said. “I am just glad we came out here and got the W.”

Added Baker: “No matter who it is, when someone goes down it is just our instincts as brothers to get behind each other and push forward and that’s what we did tonight. I am really excited and proud of the guys.”

That BYU would get its eighth win wasn’t really in question early as the Cougars jumped out to an 11-0 lead, but Young’s squad seemed to lose interest a bit after building a 30-16 advantage with 7:20 remaining in the first half and only scored four points on their last 10 possessions of the half, allowing Wyoming to scratch back and make it 34-25 at halftime.

BYU scored 27 points in the first 10 minutes of the first half and just seven points in the last 10 minutes of the half. Credit the Cowboys for dictating the tempo the last 10 minutes of the first half.

“That last four-minute stretch (of the first half) wasn’t great for us offensively,” Young acknowledged. “Weird combinations, probably poor subbing on my part. I will have to look at the film to see exactly what (happened). We couldn’t find a rhythm, execution was poor.”

The second half was a different story. With Knell and Mag drilling 3-pointers, the Cougars quickly regained control and had a 56-37 lead with just under 10 minutes remaining on a Baker layup.

“Outside of the first play of the half, I thought we executed extremely well in the second half,” Young said. “I don’t think the stats will show it. How many layups did we miss at the basket? It felt like a bunch after running some really good offense. I thought the execution was much better, though.”

BYU took much better care of the ball in the second half after committing eight turnovers in the first half. The Cougars finished with 13, but a few of those came in garbage time.

They adjusted well to an NBA arena as well, making 9 of 20 3-point attempts (45%) and shooting 52% from the field, despite the plethora of missed bunnies that Young referenced.

BYU’s bench outscored Wyoming’s bench 37-14 and the Cougars enjoyed a 24-18 advantage in the paint.

“We gotta continue to compete against some of the power conference teams to continue to learn about ourselves, but I think our defensive identity particularly in the last two games is really starting to come together,” Young said.

“Offensively we are playing the way I would like us to play, for the most part. … We are one game away from Big 12 play so we gotta do it in short order, but so far we are getting closer.”

The Cougars’ next game is Friday against Florida A&M at the Marriott Center.