1 / 9

BYU's Richie Saunders, left, drives past TCU's Emanuel Miller during a Big 12 men's basketball game at the Marriott Center on Saturday, March 2, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

2 / 9

From left: Atiki Ally Atika, Trevin Knell, Aly Khalifa and Noah Waterman react to a 3-pointer during a Big 12 men's basketball game against TCU at the Marriott Center on Saturday, March 2, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

3 / 9

BYU's Fousseyni Traore shoots over a TCU defender during a Big 12 men's basketball game at the Marriott Center on Saturday, March 2, 2024.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

4 / 9

BYU fans react during a Big 12 men's basketball game against TCU in the Marriott Center on Saturday, March 2, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

5 / 9

BYU's Fousseyni Traore slams down an alley-oop dunk during a Big 12 men's basketball game against TCU at the Marriott Center on Saturday, March 2, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

6 / 9

BYU's Jaxson Robinson, left, blocks a TCU shot attempt during a Big 12 men's basketball game at the Marriott Center on March 2, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

7 / 9

BYU's Spencer Johnson (20) defends TCU's Jameer Nelson Jr. during a Big 12 men's basketball game at the Marriott Center on Saturday, March 2, 2024.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

8 / 9

BYU's Richie Saunders reaches in to steal the ball away from TCU's Emanuel Miller during a Big 12 men's basketball game at the Marriott Center on Saturday, March 2, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

9 / 9

BYU's Trevin Knell greets fans after an 87-75 victory against TCU in a Big 12 men's basketball game at the Marriott Center on Saturday, March 2, 2024.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

❮ ❯

The BYU defense wasn’t physical enough in the first half on Saturday against TCU, so coach Mark Pope figured they ought to get physical in the locker room.

BYU erased a 17-point halftime deficit with runs of 15-0 and 20-2 in the second half, outscoring the Horned Frogs 58-29 on its way to an 87-75 victory in front of a sellout crowd at the Marriott Center.

There were a lot of reasons for the Cougars second half eruption: They found their range from the 3-point line after a dismal 1 of 13 performance in the first half, Fousseyni Traore started dominating inside and Richie Saunders’ incredible energy fueled a much better transition offense.

But also give credit to a hands-on demonstration in the locker room of what the Cougars call “tagging” or “getting a hit.”

“That was actually crazy,” Traore said. “We’ve never done anything like that before. We put all the chairs away and then started hitting each other. That’s what we do. After we did that, everybody could feel that it was time for business. It was time to go and get it done.”

Apparently, Pope started the hitting by picking out the 240-pound Traore for the first tag.

“We cannot do that again,” Pope joked in the post-game. “You almost broke my shoulder.”

The Cougars looked broken in the first half, perhaps a bit of a hangover from Tuesday’s electric upset of Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse. TCU averages seven made 3-pointers a game but connected on its first five triples and led 23-16 at the 12:20 mark of the first half. BYU briefly pulled within one, 23-22, on a driving layup by Jaxson Robinson with 9:50 to play. The Cougars scored just seven points the rest of the way (and missed two front ends of one-and-one) while the Horned Frogs, which finished 7 of 10 from beyond the arc, stretched out their lead to 17 points (46-29) at halftime.

It was BYU’s largest halftime deficit of the season.

Trevin Knell knocked down a 3-pointer on the Cougars first possession of the second half and that seemed to ignite the sellout crowd, which stood and got loud for a large part of that second 20 minutes.

BYU trailed 50-36 but went on a 15-0 run over the next four minutes, getting a pair of 3-pointers from Knell and a conventional 3-point play from Traore to close to one at 50-49. TCU scored seven straight points to get back out to a 57-49 lead with 11:43 remaining, but the Cougars kept coming. Traore scored inside, Robinson made his first 3-pointer of the game and Saunders scored on a layup to tie the game at 62-all with 7:43 remaining. Moments later, Saunders came down and dropped in a 3-pointer for a 65-62 lead.

Saunders’ energy defined the Cougars’ devastating 20-2 run and a Robinson drive gave the home team a 75-64 advantage with 4:34 to go.

That lead would hold up as BYU completed the biggest halftime comeback of the Pope era, topping the 16-point deficit it overcame in a 79-75 overtime victory against Dayton in the Bahamas in 2022.

“That was a really hard-fought win,” Saunders said. “Going into halftime we were down 17 and we were just really talking about fight, how we need to be the aggressor and be the one that hit first. On the defensive end there are so many opportunities to to hit somebody coming down the lane, to hit him a little bit to get them out of their rhythm. That’s one of our focuses and then with that focus was execution. In the second half we came out and did just that there. There were some really big plays all over the board.”

Traore led BYU with 21 points on 8 of 11 from the field and Knell finished with 20 points, making all four of his 3-pointers in the second half. Dallin Hall contributed 12 points, six rebounds and seven assists. Saunders was 4 of 5 from the field, scoring 11 points while adding seven rebounds and two assists, one of which was an alley-oop lob to Traore for a dunk with under three minutes to play. Spencer Johnson had 10 points and Robinson tallied nine.

BYU was dynamic on offense in the second half, making 8 of 15 (53%) from the 3-point line and converting 64.5% from the field (20 of 31).

“I’m fortunate to be around guys that are tough like these guys demonstrated toughness tonight,” Pope said. “Sometimes we mistake toughness for yelling and screaming and fouling and grabbing and punching. But real toughness is the ability to focus when everything around you is going sideways and you don’t even feel right yourself. These guys were brilliant with their toughness. They’re getting more confident and they’re starting to feel like they understand more and more toughness. This is a time of season where toughness matters.”

Emanuel Miller led TCU (19-10 overall, 8-8 Big 12) with 15 and Jameer Nelson Jr. added 14.

BYU (21-8, 9-7) is tied for fourth in the league standings with Texas Tech and Kansas. The Cougars travel to No. 8 Iowa State on Wednesday and concludes the Big 12 regular season next Saturday at home against Oklahoma State.

Newsletter