PROVO, Utah – BYU celebrated senior night by dominating No. 10 Texas Tech in the paint 48-14 to earn its first win over the Red Raiders since 1993 Saturday night at the Marriott Center.
“I’m proud of our guys because it has been an adversity-filled season.” Head coach Kevin Young said, “Something Richie Saunders has said several times is how much adversity brings teams together. Obviously, we’ve faced a lot of it, so being able to get on the other side of that and beat a really good team is something we can bottle up as we head into the postseason.”
After trailing by eight at halftime, BYU outscored the 10th ranked Red Raiders 44-30 over the final 20 minutes for its second Top 10 win of the season, 82-76. The Cougars held Texas Tech to just 25.0 percent from behind the arc in the second half despite giving up a season-most 16 3-pointers. The Cougars also nabbed 20 offensive rebounds, the second highest this season for BYU. This allowed the Cougars to double the Red Raiders second-chance points with BYU scoring 20 to Texas Tech’s nine.
BYU recorded a season-low three turnovers while forcing Texas Tech to nine, leading to 13 BYU points off turnovers with the Red Raiders recording just three.
Robert Wright III led the Cougars with 27 points on 9-of-17 shooting while going a perfect 9-of-9 from the free throw line. The sophomore transfer also hauled in six rebounds and recorded a steal.
AJ Dybansta scored 21 points and added six rebounds with two assists. The true freshman has now scored in double digits in every game this season and 20+ in the last 10 games. This is also the fourth time the Brockton, Massachusetts product has played a full 40 minutes on the floor.
Kennard Davis Jr. scored in double digits for the first time since the Cougars beat Iowa State in the Marriott Center in late February with 16 points against the Red Raiders. The junior made four three-pointers while grabbing two offensive boards, recording two assists and a steal.
In his last home game as a Cougar, senior Keba Kieta nearly recorded a double-double with nine points on 4-of-5 shooting while picking up 11 rebounds, with six of those coming off the offensive glass.
Aleksej Kostic, in his first career start, scored five points while nabbing three rebounds and an assist. Khadim Mboup added four points and six rebounds.
First Half
Texas Tech came out quick scoring from behind the arc to open the game before the Cougars got an inside pass to Keba Kieta who slammed it home. On the ensuing possession BYU forced an out of bounds turnover and turned it into a Dybansta and-one mid range jumper.
Keba gets senior night started with a SLAM
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) March 8, 2026
📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/ZBIxuLopmv
After a Wright III steal, Kostic made a three-pointer to give the Cougars the lead 8-6. The Red Raiders fired right back, going on an 8-2 run to go up 14-10. The Raiders then pushed the deficit to eight for the Cougars after a 8-4 run made the score 22-14.
Davis Jr. snagged an offensive board and put it back to cut the lead to six before Texas Tech opened up a 9-4 run to take a double digit lead 31-20.
The Cougars showed some life opening up a 7-3 run of their own after an and-one layup from Khadim Mboup gave them some momentum. On the ensuing possession BYU forced a shot clock violation that set up a Davis Jr. corner three to cut the Red Raiders lead to six at 31-25.
The Red Raiders then got hot from long range making shots from beyond the 3-point line on three consecutive possessions. The Cougars answered with Dybansta and Kostic each making paint jumpers and Davis Jr. nailing a e-pointer with 1:36 left on the first half clock down 40-32.
In the final minute of the half the Cougars and Red Raiders each traded pairs of 3-pointers with Davis Jr. and Dybansta each knocking one down from beyond the arc to finish the half down 46-38.
Second Half
BYU opened the half hot with Wright III scoring an and-one layup on the first possession of the half. Kieta followed that up with an and-one put back layup of his own to cut the Red Raiders lead to five less than one minute into the period.
Wright III then made a driving layup kickstarting a 8-1 BYU run that featured a Dybansta tip-in put back layup off his own miss. Wright III finished off the Cougars run by dropping in a pair of layups to force a Texas Tech timeout down by one, 52-51.
After a Red Raiders three, Wright III continued his hot streak by making another layup followed by an Mboup hook-shot jumper that made the score 57-55 with 12:06 remaining. Dybansta then gave BYU the lead after an and-one midrange jumper put the Cougars up 58-57.
Texas Tech took the lead right back on a jumper before Dybansta again took the lead on a paint jumper. The Red Raiders responded by going on a 5-0 run to take a four point lead.
The Cougars fought back, opening a 4-0 run of their own with Wright III making another layup to force Texas Tech to take a timeout with 8:11 remaining and the score knotted at 64. After a defensive stop Wright III took the lead back for BYU on a paint jumper before Texas Tech knotted the game at 66 a-piece.
BYU then opened up a four-point lead after Dybansta put down an and-one jumper. The Cougars continued the 9-0 onslaught run with Wright III putting down two free throws and Keta putting in a second chance layup to make the Cougar advantage 74-66 with under five minutes left.
Texas Tech then scored their first points in over three minutes to open up a 9-0 run that tied the game at 75 with 1:46 remaining. Davis Jr. then took the lead right back for the Cougars on a three-pointer. After a BYU miss Texas Tech hauled in the rebound but a jumpball gave BYU possession with 50 seconds left.
CLUTCH.
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) March 8, 2026
📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/Bk7XW54ZeH
Wright III then scored the final points of the game with four free throws to go a perfect 9-9 from the charity stripe on the night, icing the win for BYU 82-76.
Up Next
The Cougars head to Kansas City, Missouri to compete in the Big 12 Tournament starting Tuesday, March 10. Live coverage of the tournament will be available on the ESPN family of networks.