First Half
Led by Saunders’ scorching hot shooting, the Cougars raced to a 16-point lead over the first 13 minutes of play.
Keita swatted away the Sun Devils’ first shot of the game and Saunders quickly found the ball and bottom of the net with a 3-pointer in transition. On BYU’s next possession, Dallin Hall secured an errant shot off the rim and Saunders did the rest, flying down the key for a deuce and 5-0 lead.
BYU went up 11-2 with Saunders and Catchings knocking down consecutive triples. Saunders also made his presence felt on the defensive end of the floor with a dead ball steal that halted an ASU possession.
Five minutes into the game, the Cougars had an 11-2 lead powered by shooting 4-of-7 from the field and 3-of-6 from distance while holding the Sun Devils to one make on their first five attempts.
Saunders and Fousseyni Traore teamed up to push BYU’s lead to 18-4 over the next four minutes. After a pair of free throw makes form Saunders, Traore collected an offensive rebound and registered a putback bucket. On the Cougars’ next possession, Traore found Saunders’ hot hand with a kickout pass from the paint to the sharpshooter for another 3-pointer.
ASU cut BYU’s lead to single digits at 18-10 before the Cougars’ responded with an 8-0 run for the half-high 16-point lead. The run began with Hall hitting a 3-pointer then Keita scoring three the old-fashioned way on a putback score and ensuing free throw. BYU capped the run with Catchings coming in from the corner on a transition pass and slamming the ball home for the 26-10 lead.
The Sun Devils’ first 3-point make of the day helped them cut the BYU lead to 29-20 with 3:31 to play until half but Baker was quick to respond, driving and scoring through contact to keep the Cougars in front 31-20.
A pair of ASU steals and four points on free throws, along with a two-minute BYU scoring drought helped the visitors narrow the game to 31-26 at half.
With a cooler shooting stretch to end the period, the Cougars shot 37-percent for the half while holding the Sun Devils to 32-percent. Saunders and Catchings led BYU with 15 and eight points, respectively in the first half. Saunders’ 15 points came on 5-of-8 from the field and 3-of-5 from deep along with four rebounds, a block and steal in 13 minutes of play.
Second Half
BYU came out of the break and quickly pushed its lead back to double digits with a 7-0 run. Eight minutes into the half, the Cougars led 52-38 after shooting 9-of-15 from the floor, outrebounding ASU 8-3 and scoring nine points off five forced Sun Devil turnovers.
Offensive rebounds, second-chance scoring and points off turnovers were the name of the game for the Cougars in the early going of the half. Saunders and Keita were behind BYU’s success in both categories.
While the Cougars began the first half with a block, they notched a steal to start the second, this one courtesy Hall. The ensuing BYU shot was wayward but Keita came away with the offensive rebound and went back up for the score and 33-26 lead.
BYU forced another turnover on the Sun Devils’ next possession and Demin took advantage with a drive to the rim for a deuce. Catchings stole another ASU ball and an offensive rebound from Hall resulted in more second-chance points for the Cougars with Saunders draining another 3-pointer.
Saunders’ next attempt from distance was off the mark but Keita secured the board then took a behind-the-back pass from Hall, shook a defender and scored at the rim to put BYU up 40-26. After blazing away from 3-point range for much of the day, Saunders went inside to score his next three buckets and give BYU its 52-38 lead eight minutes in.
Triples from Catchings and Saunders as well as three free throw makes from Baker gave the Cougars their first 20-point lead of the game at 65-45 with 7:29 to play.
BYU put a pair of exclamation points on the game with Traore beating his defender and slamming home a shot to put the Cougars up 67-46 late. Saunders brought the crowd to its feet one more time with his sixth and final 3-pointer in the final minute of play.
BYU ends the week with its first road trip to Houston as a member of the Big 12 Conference. Watch BYU take on No. 14 Houston on Jan. 4 at 1 p.m. CST on ESPN+ or listen to live play-by-play on BYU Radio.
