Traore and Saunders led the Cougars this afternoon, each recording their career-highs. Traore moved into the top-50 on BYU’s all time scoring list with his 29 points and noted his seventh career game with 20+ points, going 11-of-12 from field. With 26 points from Saunders, he tied his record of 3-pointers made with four. He proved his defensive game as well, tallying his career-high blocks with three.
Offensively, BYU improved their scoring percentages immensely in the second half, with the help of 54 points and going 13-of-14 from the free throw line. The Cougars also made 11-of-12 layups while never trailing throughout the second half.
Egor Demin went 100 percent from the free throw line, helping him record his fourth-straight game with scoring in the double digits. Additionally, Demin had a career-high three blocks to go with 16 points, seven assists and three steals.
The Cougars outshot the Vandals 55.9-50 percent this afternoon. BYU also marked eight blocks, making this their second-straight game with 8, in comparison to Idaho’s one.
First Half
The Vandals started off the first half with an 8-2 lead over the Cougars. Powered by a Saunders jumper and two made free throws from Kanon Catchings, BYU found a 4-0 run and narrowed the Idaho lead to 8-6 with 14:57 remaining in the first half.
Traore brought pressure on Idaho with two straight layups followed by a made free throw. Mawot Mag helped the Cougars take their first lead of the night at 16-15 after he made a pair of free throws.
With 11:22 remaining in the first, Demin nailed a 3-pointer off a Dawson Baker assist, knotting the game at 19-19. The teams continued to trade points, highlighted by a Saunders 3-ball and an off-the-glass layup.
Saunders began to make his presence known with 8:07 left to play by hitting a 3-pointer and a layup. Saunders pushed the Cougars to find an 11-1 run, aided by Keba Keita’s jumper from inside the paint and another 3-pointer from Demin behind the arc.
Off of his second steal of the game, Saunders recorded another layup with 1:23 left in the first. Trevin Knell scored the final points of the half with a made three that sent BYU to the break up 41-38.
Both Saunders and Traore led the Cougars in scoring in the first half, each recording nine points. As a team, BYU shot 6-of-16 from the free throw line and 5-of-17 on 3-pointers, going 53.6 in field goal percentage.
Second Half
With the clock at 17:04 in the second half, Demin kick-started a 10-0 Cougar run with three drained free throws, leading Catchings to a dunk on the fast break and a Saunders layup and 3-pointer, taking the BYU lead to 56-45.
Saunders blocked a Vandal shot late in the shot clock before blasting down the court for dunk, increasing the Cougars lead.
In just under two minutes, Traore got a defensive rebound to roll a 7-3 Traore scoring drive, with three made free throws, a layup and a hook shot to advance the lead to 67-52.
After a 5-0 Idaho run, Traore regained the momentum with 09:12 remaining, going on to tally seven straight points.
The Vandals found another set of five straight points, but Saunders quickly answered with just over five minutes to play, with the help of a 3-pointer and a steal that led to a layup.
With 02:32 remaining, Traore maintained his dominant half with a layup and jumper adding to his career-high points.
Knell made both of his free throws, sealing the Coguars fourth straight victory to start the season.
Up next, the Cougars return to the Marriott Center on Nov. 23 to take on the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils with tip-off at 7 p.m. MST. Watch on ESPN+ or listen to live play-by-play with Greg Wrubell on BYU Radio.
