Cougs Daily

Richie Saunders was the Catalyst to BYU's Comeback Win Over TCU

The box score didn't do Richie Saunders' performance justice against TCU

Casey Lundquist

After a win over TCU on Saturday night, the BYU basketball team went around the arena to give high fives to the fans. It's a tradition that BYU adopted many years ago in all sports. After every game, BYU players thank the fans by going around the entire field to shake hands. When Richie Saunders went around the arena, he was met with "MVP" chants from the ROC.

Saunders was absolutely fantastic on Saturday night. However, the box score didn't do Richie Saunders' performance justice. He finished with 11 points on 4/5 shooting and he added 7 rebounds and 2 assists.

That's a great stat line, for sure, but he made so many winning plays that didn't show up on the stat sheet. In the opinion of this author, Saunders was the catalyst to BYU's second-half comeback over the Horned Frogs.

In the first half, Saunders grabbed a would-be field goal attempt before it could leave the hands of the TCU player. The play was ruled a jump ball. It was picture-perfect defense. 

Richie Saunders basketball TCU
Credit: BYU Photo

During BYU's first run in the second half, Saunders collected a tough offensive rebound off a Trevin Knell miss. He created just enough space put up a quick shot, which he made, and trimmed the lead to six.

During that same run, Saunders provided help defense for Dallin Hall who had been switched onto the TCU big man. Saunders timed the help perfectly to force a miss.

Saunders, who was in a little bit of foul trouble, left the game with 11:40 remaining. He came back a few minutes later and sure enough, BYU went on another run.

During the second run, Saunders dribbled to the basket and found Jaxson Robinson for a a wide-open three. Robinson's three cut TCU's lead to two, 62-60. On the next possession, Saunders positioned himself in the paint and put up a tough shot over his shoulder to tie the game at 62. After a BYU stop, Saunders hit a three to give BYU a 65-62 lead. During that micro 7-0 run, Saunders contributed to every point scored. That shot also gave BYU its first lead since there were 14 minutes left in the first half. BYU never relinquished the lead after that point.

Richie Saunders basketball
Credit: BYU Photo

A few minutes later, Saunders grabbed a rebound on the defensive end. He hustled down the court to clean up a Jaxson Robinson miss on the offensive glass. Saunders was fouled on the put-back attempt and he made both free throws to extend the lead to nine.

With three minutes left, Saunders hustled for a 50/50 ball and won the defensive rebound. TCU poked the ball away after the rebound, and again Saunders hit the floor to force a jump ball. The possession arrow favored BYU and the Cougars got the ball back. On that possession, Dallin Hall found Richie to break the press. Saunders dribbled to the basket to force the lone TCU defender into a decision. The defender opted to stop the ball, so Saunders tossed a lob to Fousseyni Traore for the alley-oop dunk.

A few possessions later, Saunders put the cherry on top of a fantastic performance when two TCU players were in position to collect an offensive rebound. Saunders split the two TCU players to tip the defensive rebound to Spencer Johnson. That last play was was the perfect example of Saunders' contributions on Saturday night. It wasn't memorable, it didn't show up on the box score, but it helped BYU pull out the win.

Saunders finished the game +19 in just 23 minutes played. That was second to Spencer Johnson who was +23 and tied with Dallin Hall who was +19 as well. When Saunders was on the court, BYU was the better team. And that wasn't a coincidence. 

On a BYU team where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, Saunders plays such a critical role night in and night out. He is the glue guy. He does the dirty work that typically goes unnoticed. However, he does the less glorious things so well, so often, that he's started to garner attention from national media like Jon Rothstein.

Rothstein is right. Saunders hasn't always received a lot of credit for his contributions as the glue guy. Nights like Saturday night, however, change that perception. Saunders was everywhere and he was impossible to ignore.

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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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