Provo, UT –
13,130 were in attendance for BYU Men’s Basketball first non-conference of the Big 12 era.
Spencer Johnson’s new career-high of 20 points, along with seven rebounds and five assists, helped lead BYU (1-0) to their first victory of the 2023 season, and first in the Big 12 era, defeating Houston Christian University (0-1) 110 to 63 on Monday night at the Marriott Center in Provo, UT.
The big star of the show would ultimately be redshirt Junior Trevin Knell. Knell, who missed all of last season with a shoulder injury. Knell would remind Cougar Nation why he was a big part of BYU’s offense scoring 13 first half points that led to a 13-2 run in favor of the Cougars’.
“It feels great to be back in front of that ROC” Knell said in regards to not having played in the Marriott Center and the BYU student section in over 500 days. My teammates are great, coach ran some good plays for me today…For the past 500 days I’ve been urgent with getting my body where it needs to be, getting shot back to calibro in needs to be to play, and now it’s about trusting process” were the word Knell used to
https://twitter.com/BYUMBB/status/1721728856418300127
Junior guard Trey Stewart would shine in his first career start scoring 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting while adding three rebounds and four assists. The highlight of Stewart’s game on Monday night wasn’t anything on the stat sheet.
“I’m really proud of Trey. He has had a ton of pressure put on his shoulder, we lost a player this summer that was going to play some minutes at the point, and with Dallin being out the last three weeks, then Dawson being out you’re down three point guards right there. Trey has had to carry the entire load, every single rep, every single practice, every single day in training camp” were BYU Men’s Basketball Head Coach Mark Pope thoughts on Junior guard Trey Stewart first career start.
Although the Junior from American Fork, Utah performed well in his first, his highlight of the night wasn’t anything he would do on the stat sheet. In the second half Stewart would drop Houston Christian guard Pierce Bazil on a cross-over that electrified the crowd.
The Cougars would add to the record books shooting a program record 43 three pointers on Monday night. This would also be the most points BYU has scored in a game since 2016 when the school scored 114 against San Francisco.
BYU now turns it attention to #17 ranked San Diego State. The Cougars will host the Aztecs in their second non-conference game of the season on Friday November 10th. The game will be broadcast on ESPN + at 7pm MDT.
