Saunders, Cougars rock No. 23 Jayhawks 91-57

Led by Richie Saunders’ 22 points, BYU men’s basketball shot out to a 22-7 lead and never looked back on its way to a historic 91-57 win over No. 23 Kansas Tuesday night at the Marriott Center.

Author Joseph Hovey
Saunders, Cougars rock No. 23 Jayhawks 91-57Saunders, Cougars rock No. 23 Jayhawks 91-57
Box Score

PROVO, Utah — Led by Richie Saunders’ 22 points, BYU men’s basketball shot out to a 22-7 lead and never looked back on its way to a historic 91-57 win over No. 23 Kansas Tuesday night at the Marriott Center.

“It was a great win," first-year head coach Kevin Young said. "We have been waiting for a win against a storied program and a team that’s really good. Tonight was impressive by our guys to carry out the game plan on both ends of the floor. We responded right out of the gate and kind of punched them in the mouth. I like the tone that we set and I want to give credit to our team for their attention to detail on the game plan.This three game span that we have been on is by far the most dialed in stretch of the year as it relates to focusing on exactly what we are trying to do with the game plan.”

The Cougars recorded the program’s largest all-time margin of victory over a ranked opponent with the 34-point defeat of the Jayhawks. BYU led from start to finish with a 46-26 halftime lead followed by a 45-31 showing in the second.

BYU shot 51.5 percent from the field for the night, including 14-of-36 from 3-point range. Kansas shot 36.5 percent with nine 3-pointers on 32 attempts. The Cougars’ added nine free throw makes on 12 attempts while holding the Jayhawks to two on five trips to the charity stripe. Despite the 7-foot-2 presence of Kansas center Hunter Dickinson, BYU outscored the visitors in the paint 32-22 and outrebounded them 43-33.

The Cougars’ 34 made field goals came on 24 assists to just 10 turnovers – seven of which came while well in control of the game in the second half.

Defensively, BYU forced 15 turnovers, 14 of which came on steals. Ten different BYU players recorded a steal with four snagging two a-piece.

Richie Saunders’ 22 points led all scorers and came on 9-of-13 shooting from the field with 4-of-8 from distance.

Trevin Knell, Mawot Mag, Keba Keita and Dallin Hall gave BYU a total of five players in double figures.

Knell poured in 15 points on 5-of-11 from the field with four triples, eight boards and four assists on the night he surpassed 1000 career points. Mag added 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting while Keita and Hall pitched in 10 a-piece.

Keita complemented his 10 points with nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Hall’s 10 points came with eight assists and two takeaways.

Fousseyni Traore and Egor Demin each put up seven points with six rebounds and five assists, respectively.

First Half
BYU used four 3-pointers, four offensive rebounds and a frenetic transition attack to sprint out to a 22-7 lead seven minutes in.

Knell knocked down the Cougars’ first shot of the game with a trey from the corner and Mag kept up the BYU scoring shortly after with a transition lay-in. The Cougars were quick to fire again from three when Keita collected an offensive rebound and Saunders buried his first triple. Less than two minutes in, BYU had an 8-0 lead and sent Kansas into their first timeout.

The Jayhawks got on the board and cut the Cougar lead to 8-5 shortly after the timeout but Knell and Mag pushed BYU’s lead to 13-5 with consecutive transition scores, one from three, the other at the rim. Over the first four minutes of gametime, BYU was shooting 5-of-9 from the field to Kansas’ 2-of-7.

Keita put the Cougars up double digits, 17-7, with a finesse finish at the rim and alley-oop slam on consecutive possessions. After a pair of free throws from Demin, complementary offense-defense gave BYU its 22-7 advantage. Kansas looked to feed the ball inside to its All-American center Dickinson but Traore batted the pass away and into the arms of Dawson Baker who worked the ball down floor to Mag for an open triple.

After a 14-2 run over four minutes, the Cougars faced a seven-minute dry spell from the field as the Jayhawks came back within nine at 26-17.

Another sequence of defensive playmaking-turned-transition offense remedied the BYU drought. Kansas briefly secured an offensive rebound before Keita put an end to the possession with a block and Mag capitalized on the other end with a 3-pointer.

Moments later, Saunders stopped and popped with a top-of-the-key three to give BYU a 32-17 lead off the 7-0 run.

The final five minutes of the half featured continued strong play from Saunders and Knell along with the addition of Trey Stewart to the defensive effort.

No sooner had Stewart taken the floor than did he force two of BYU’s seven steals in the half. Saunders and Knell combined for three more 3-pointers in the waning moments of the half, giving the Cougars a 46-26 lead at the break.

BYU went to the half with three players in double figures. Saunders led the Cougars with 14 points on 5-of-5 from the field with four 3-pointers. Knell put up 13 points with four triples while Mag added 10 points on 4-of-5 from the field.

The Cougars shot 47-percent from the field in the half to Kansas’ 37. BYU shot the three-ball at a blistering 10-of-24 while the Jayhawks made four triples on 16 attempts. Defensively, the Cougars forced eight Kansas turnovers, seven of which came on steals.

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Second Half
BYU didn’t let off the gas in the second half and rolled up its 20-point halftime lead to 31 six minutes into the second period.

The Cougars opened the second half adding to their lead with paint shots accounting for each of their first five buckets. Knell dished a pass to Keita who came rumbling down floor and dropped the ball through the tin for two to give BYU a 48-29 lead. After a Demin driving score, Keita scored another off the glass then stole a Jayhawk pass which Saunders converted into a baseline floater.

BYU’s 8-0 run over 1:48 pushed its lead to 54-29 three minutes in.

Rather than hand it off to Keita, Knell used his next trip down floor to muscle his own way to the cup for a deuce. Knell was denied by a defender once but not a second time as he collected his blocked shot and went back up for the score. A Saunders score down low and Demin step-back three burgeoned BYU's lead to 31 at 64-33 with 14:08 to play.

The Saunders clinic continued shortly after Kansas’ final timeout with two more scores in the paint. Traore got in on the action and bullied his way to the basket for a bucket moments later. With a 5-0 personal run from Hall and loose ball-turned slam dunk from Traore, BYU took a game-high 36-point lead of 78-42 with just under six minutes remaining.

The Cougars kept the momentum rolling over the final minutes of the game with two more scores from Hall, along with a slam dunk and shot-denying swat into the stands from Keita.

BYU shot 56-percent from the field in the second half to Kansas’ 36 while doubling-up the Jayhawks 24-12 in the paint and notching another seven steals.

Up Next
BYU moves from its Sunflower State swing to the Grand Canyon State with consecutive road games at Arizona and Arizona State up next. Watch the Cougars face No. 19 Arizona at the McKale Center on ESPN at 8 p.m. MST on Feb. 22 or listen to live play-by-play on BYU Radio.