Cougs Daily

BYU Basketball Embarrasses Kansas From Start to Finish in 34-Point Rout

Casey Lundquist

BYU basketball star Richie Saunders
BYU basketball star Richie Saunders / BYU Photo
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What a night it was in the Marriott Center for the BYU basketball program. Under the direction of first-year coach Kevin Young, BYU dominated no. 23 Kansas 91-57 in a game they never trailed. The Cougars get a signature win, one that could be enough to hear their name called on Selection Sunday.

The 34-point loss was tied for Kansas' largest loss of the Bill Self era. Self has been at Kansas since 2003.

BYU got out to a quick 8-0 lead thanks to two quick threes by veteran Trevin Knell. BYU reached its first double-digit lead with 14 minutes remaining and never looked back, leading by double digits for the large majority of the game.

Coming into the game, Kansas was a top-10 team in terms of defensive efficiency. The BYU guards sliced up the Kansas defense, finding wide open shooters and hitting 10 threes in just the first half. BYU point guards Egor Demin and Dallin Hall combined for 13 assists on the night.

BYU's ball movement was fantastic throughout the night. BYU had 15 assists on 15 field goals in the first half, taking a 46-26 lead into the break.

At the start of the second half, BYU quickly extended the lead to 25 points and forced a Kansas timeout. After the timeout, BYU continued to push the tempo and find open shooters.

A Egor Demin three over Hunter Dickinson gave BYU a 31-point lead with 14 minutes remaining and Bill Self was forced to use his last timeout of the game. The Marriott Center was electric all night, but it might have been the loudest after the Demin three.

Richie Saunders was brilliant in this game. He was a perfect 5/5 in the first half and he finished with 22 points on 9/13 shooting. Saunders was hitting threes to start the game, so Kansas adjusted their defense and Saunders started getting to his signature floater in the second half. The Jayhawks simply had no answer for BYU's leading scorer.

BYU's win over Kansas was as close to a perfect game as you can get in college basketball. The 34-point win was BYU's largest margin of victory ever over ranked team.

Five BYU players scored in double digits: Richie Saunders (22), Trevin Knell (15), Mawot Mag (13), Keba Keita (10), and Dallin Hall (10). Hall nearly reached a double-double with 10 points and 8 assists.

The win marks BYU's third consecutive win in league play, and improves BYU's conference record to 9-6. BYU is now in sole possession of fifth place in the Big 12 standings.

The Cougars will take their winning streak on the road this weekend. They take on another ranked team in the Arizona Wildcats before taking on Arizona State on Tuesday.

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Casey Lundquist
CASEY LUNDQUIST

Casey Lundquist is the publisher and lead editor of Cougs Daily. He has covered BYU athletics for the last four years. During that time, he has published over 2,000 stories that have reached more than three million people.

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