Provo, UT –
Disruptive Defense has been the motto for Head Coach Mark and the BYU Men’s Basketball team. Pope has constantly said he wants to play fast and in transition.
Well that is exactly what BYU did in their Exhibition match Wednesday night taking down Ottawa (Arizona) 109-69.
13 different BYU players scored, 6 in double figures, as the team shot 69% from the field and 58% percent from 3-point range.
The first bucket of the 2022-2023 came from Junior guard Spencer Johnson. Johnson led all scorers with 16 points adding one rebound and three assists on 66% shooting from the field.
The hot shooting start from BYU gave them the early advantage as the cougars hit their first three, 3-pointers they took to open up the game.
Early baskets from transfer Jaxson Robinson gave BYU a 14-7 lead.
The OUAZ weren’t going to go away quietly though as they made two quick buckets and free throws, which cut BYU’s lead to two making the score 23-21.
Trey Stewart had the first of his BYU career that came off a fast break steal that gave the Cougars 23-16 lead.
With the departure of former Cougars Alex Barcello, Te’jon Lucas & with multiple others that transferred; what would the second unit look like for BYU. This is a question that many fans have had.
The current roster consist of only 6 upper-classman, two of which who transferred this off-season, which leaves the rest of the roster made up with 12 under-classman.
The second unit in Thursday’s night game consisted of Trey Stewart, Atiki Ally Atiki, Dallin Hall, Richie Saunders and Noah Waterman.
This second unit for the Cougars added 11 points on a combined total of 5-of-8 shooting from the field in six minutes of play.
Sophomores’ Atiki Ally Atiki, Trey Stewart and Freshman Dallin Hall combined for 32 of the 48 points off the bench.
Atiki Ally Atiki led all bench players with 14 points to go along with five rebounds, one block and one steal in 17 minutes of play.
Atiki Alley Atiki throws dunks over Ottawa Forward Josiah De‘laCerda Wednesday night. Photo Courtesy of BYU Athletics/BYU Basketball
Photo by Jaren Wilkey/BYU
Ally Atiki’s best play of the night came with just seven minutes left in the first half. Atiki caught a pass from Noah Waterman who then passed it out to Dallin Hall. Hall pumped faked and drove to the basket and passed it back to Ally Atiki. Ally Atiki caught the pass and with two hands to dunk it over Ottawa Forward Josiah De laCerda. This took some life out of Ottawa, and guess you could say they weren’t feeling the “Spirit” at that point.
ATIKI WITH THE RIM-ROCKER ❗❗❗#BYUhoops | #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/jBtDhJAjcd
— BYU Sports Nation (@BYUSportsNation) November 3, 2022
The game was still close when the starters returned to the game, but that didn’t last for long. Senior guard Rudi Williams led the Cougars en route to a 14-0 run in just over three minutes to give the Cougars a 43-26 lead.
Make no mistake it wasn’t just the Cougars offense that was giving the OUAZ problems it was their defense as well.
Finally, the BYU run ended with a jumper from Senior guard Kolten Hill. The Senior from Malta Idaho has averaged 10.8 points per game on 47% shooting from the field in his time with the OUAZ.
The Cougars held Hitt to nine points on 3-of-11 shooting, which is 27% from the field. BYU forced Ottawa to turn the ball over 27 times and capitalized on 40 points off those turnovers.
Although Ottawa guard Keshawn Burner hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the first half, BYU led 51-36.
BYU put this game away in the second half within the first five minutes of play. The Cougars went on another 15-0 run that iced the game. Rudi Williams added two more 3-pointers in this run along with a 3-pointer from Jaxson Robinson that gave the Cougars 68-40 advantage.
Williams had 15 points along with 3 rebounds and six assists. The transfer from Coastal Carolina shot 5-of-6 from the field, perfect from 3-point range, while knocking down his free throws on the night.
Jaxson Robinson also added 12 points and five rebounds shooting 80% from the field 3-point range.
With the barrage of threes from BYU on the night the Cougars were able to drop 100 points on the night, 40 of which came off turnovers.
BYU returns to action next week, hosting Idaho State on Monday, Nov. 7 at 7:00 p.m. at the Marriott Center. Watch the Cougars face the Bengals on BYUtv or listen live on BYU Radio and the BYU Sports Network KSL 1160 AM/102.7 FM.
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