Provo, Utah –
On Saturday afternoon, a thriller in Provo, Utah, as No. 21 BYU (15-5, 3-4 Big 12) Men’s Basketball defeated the Texas Longhorns 84-72 at the Marriott Center.
The Longhorns entered the Marriott on a two-game winning streak having previously defeated No. 15 Baylor at home, and No. 11 Oklahoma on the road. It’s safe to say that the Longhorns were feeling very confident going into their third straight straight Top-25 matchup.
Noah Waterman and Jaxson Robinson both scored 17 points a piece combining for 15-of-22 from the field, and 4-of-8 from 3-point range. This is the 15th time Jaxson Robinson has scored in double figures and the ninth time he has scored 15 or more in a game this season.
Richie Saunders provided great insurance off the bench as he normally does scoring 11 points and grabbing three rebounds.
Texas grad transfer Dylan Disu is a game changer, who has been hurt most of the year, but showed no signs on Saturday as he had 19 points of 8-of-16 shooting, seven rebounds, and two assists.
He along with Tyrese Hunter had a hot start, scoring 19 of the Longhorn’s 41 points in the first half blitz us to start the game” Head coach Mark Pope said. Texas (14-6, 3-4 Big 12) opened the game hitting four 3-pointers in a row. The Longhorns eventually cooled off
“They play really hard defense, they do a good job of trying to plug the paint up and make you take contested twos, and settle. We got off to a great start, Tyrese was shooting the ball well. A couple of plays here or there that didn’t go our way.” Texas head coach Rodney Terry said.
Texas’s game plan was a failure?
“We were a part of that. We went into the game knowing that we had to protect from the perimeter. Those guys [BYU] having a great night shooting the basketball” Texas head coach Rodney Terry said. “They make 12 threes a game, shoot 35 plus a game. Our goal was to make them take tough twos, and take their threes away. I thought we did a pretty good job of that. At times we got spread out a little bit and they hurt us with their cuts.”
Texas game plan coming in was to not allow BYU to shoot 3-pointers, and that certainly proved to be effective as the Cougars took only 17, which is a season. What the Longhorns didn’t account for was all the points in the paint they would surrender. BYU dominated Texas on points in the paint as they scored 40 of their 84 points down low.
Fouss is back!
The best sighting from Saturday afternoon’s win over the Texas Longhorns was Fousseyni Traroe. The Junior forward from Bamako, Mali has been dealing with a hamstring injury for most of the season but looked completely fine as he scored 14 points on a 6-of-8 shooting from the field, while also grabbing six rebounds to go along with one assist.
BYU has been missing the inside presence of the big for most of the season as he’s averaging 7.7 points, and 4.1 rebounds on 62% percent shooting from the field. BYU has been looking for a go-to guy down the stretch and Saturday afternoon the team turned to Fousseyni as 10 of his 16 points came in the second half. Traore’s hamstring indeed looked the best it has all season recording his best block of the season with 8:39 remaining in the game.
https://twitter.com/BYUMBB/status/1751345523972337803
No Horns Down at BYU
Contrevesary arose at the Marriott Center as eight students in the front row of BYU’s student section were wearing “H-O-R-N-S-D-O-W-N” shirts. Students were asked to change their shirts. “From the ROC, from our players, and our student body, that’s just not us. That’s not how we roll. It was just a miscalculation on a couple of eager kids, we love the eagerness of these fans, but that’s not just what we do here. We love all 18, 000 in this gym, they were incredible tonight, but just so you know that’s not something we are supporting.” Mark Pope said to the media following BYU’s 84-72 win over the Longhorns.
Following their victory last week after UCF defeated the Texas Longhorns, players on Central Flordia’s roster did the “Horns down” in the handshake line, and Texas head coach Rodney Terry took exception to it, and acknowledged the players, so there is already tension around the issue.
BYU will now hit the road for a matchup with West Virginia in Morgantown. The tip-off is scheduled for 6 pm ET. The game will be live on ESPN+.
