PROVO, Utah — Jaxson Robinson and Fousseyni Traore combined for 36 points as they led BYU men’s basketball to a 93-50 win over Morgan State on Saturday night at the Marriott Center.
“Morgan State is a solid team," said head coach Mark Pope. "I’m really proud of our guys. I’m proud that we were under 12 turnovers again, even though we had nine in the first half. We had over 30 transition possessions. I thought guys stepped up and had an impact on the defensive end for us.”
Robinson scored 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field while Traore posted 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting along with four rebounds and a block.
Noah Waterman scored a BYU-career-high 15 points on 3-of-6 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. The senior forward also snatched eight rebounds. Richie Saunders came off the bench for BYU and scored 12 points while going 4-of-5 from the field along with four boards and four assists.
Brief spurts of turnover trouble bookended the first half for BYU, but pushing pace, scoring in transition and sharing the ball helped the Cougars break away in the second half for the 43-point win.
BYU outshot Morgan State 56-35 percent and assisted on 24 of 33 made field goals. The Cougars made 10-of-29 3-pointers while holding the Bears to 3-of-14. BYU shot 17-of-19 from the free-throw line and outrebounded the visitors 41-27. The Cougars scored 32 fastbreak points including 24 off of forced turnovers.
First Half
Four turnovers kept the BYU offense on the ground early, but the Cougars found their groove by sharing the ball in the halfcourt and turning opportunistic defense into transition buckets.
BYU’s breakout 13-2 run began with Traore skipping a pass down the key to a cutting Knell who turned the pass into a reverse lay-in with a foul. Knell made the ensuing free-throw to put BYU up 13-7 at the 13:15 mark.
The Cougars’ continued the run with a score in the paint from Traore and transition baskets from Robinson and Spencer Johnson. BYU capped the run with Saunders picking the Bears’ pocket and rocketing the ball ahead to Robinson for a one-handed slam. The Cougars led 23-9 with 9:38 until half.
Saunders then came off the bench and scored five-straight for the Cougars with a 2-for-2 trip to the charity stripe and corner trey on consecutive possessions. Scores from Knell and Atiki Ally Atiki helped BYU push its lead to a half-high 17 at 35-18 before turnover trouble helped Morgan State find some momentum.
BYU turned it over on three-straight possessions and went on a 2:36 scoring drought while the Bears cut their deficit to single digits at 36-27.
Transition offense and stout rim protection on defense helped the Cougars shake off the struggles and reassert control before half. Robinson scored a driving lay-in to put BYU up 40-27 then delivered a pass to Trey Stewart for a dunk. On the other end of the floor, Waterman and Traore combined for three blocked shots in the final minutes of the half.
The Cougars took a 42-29 lead into the locker room after shooting 61 percent for the half to Morgan State’s 36. BYU made four first-half 3-pointers but the Bears stayed in the game due to nine Cougar turnovers. Traore and Knell led BYU in scoring at the break with eight points a-piece.
Second Half
BYU wasted no time pulling away after the break with “Fouss” on the loose. Traore scored the Cougars' first nine points of the half, one of which saw the junior forward put a defender in the spin cycle on his way to the hoop for an emphatic dunk. When Traore’s personal scoring spurt ended BYU was up 51-29.
Waterman further built the BYU lead with six made free-throws on three trips to the line. Hall made a deep 3-pointer from the wing to put the Cougars up 62-36 before Robinson and Saunders took over with scores on four consecutive possessions that expanded BYU’s advantage to 72-36.
The Cougars put an exclamation point on the night’s performance with made 3-pointers on three-straight possessions, two of which came from Robinson with one from Waterman.
BYU shot 52 percent from the floor in the second half and 13-of-14 from the free-throw line. The Cougars had just two turnovers in the period while assisting on 11 of 16 made field goals. BYU forced six Morgan State turnovers in the second half and converted them into 12 points the other way.
BYU returns to action on Nov. 23 in its first game of the season away from home. The Cougars will face Arizona State in the first of two games at the Vegas Showdown on Thanksgiving Day at 9 p.m. PST at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Watch BYU face the Sun Devils on ESPN2 or listen live on BYU Radio.