BYU

Defense leads to Offense as BYU defeats Pacific for the second time this season

BYU Men's Basketball wing Jaxson Robinson throws down dunk against Pacific in Saturday's night win. Photo Courtesy of BYU Athletics/BYU Men's Basketball

Provo, UT – 

BYU (16-10, WCC 6-5) moved into 4th place in the West Coast Conference Saturday night defeating Pacific (12-13, WCC 5-6), for the second time this year, 81-66.

Fousseyni Traroe led the charge for the Cougars as the sophomore from Bamako Valley recorded his 15th double-double of his career finishing the game with 19 points, 12 rebounds, one steal and one assist.

Four players from BYU finished in double figures as Fousseyni Traroe, Gideon George, Rudi Williams and Jaxson Robinson combined for 53 points on 20-of-37 (54%) shooting from the field.

After Thursday’s performance against Loyola Marymount where the Cougars only turned the ball over seven times, BYU only turned the ball over nine times Saturday night against Pacific. 

This was the first time BYU had back-to-back single digit turnovers for the first time since November of 2021 against Central Methodist and Texas Southern.

Although Pacific never got under double digits in the second half, the Tigers wouldn’t go away quietly though. BYU committed 14 second half fouls, which would put the Tigers at the line 16 times. The team shot 83% from the free throw line and came as close to as many as 11.

However, BYU went on 13 to 0 run that put the game away with three minutes left calling for Pacific Head Coach Leonard Perry to throw in the towel emptying his bench.

“ We shifted our focus to the defensive side. At one point in the game we got a triple kill, a kill is when we get three stops in a row. We got three of those, so that’s nine stops in a row. Guys just stopped worrying about the offensive end and guys were like whatever happens on that side, we have to go back and play defence. We were limited in transition, held them to one shot, made tough shots too, and we stopped fouling in the last couple of minutes as well.”

Were the words Senior guard Rudi Williams used to describe BYU’s play down the stretch that would seal the victory for the Cougars.

BYU returns to action against Pepperdine next Thursday February 9th. Tip-off is scheduled for 7pm PST. The game will be live on the CBS Sports Network. It also be heard live with Greg Wrubell on BYU Radio.

Postgame :

 

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