The BYU men’s basketball team took its first true road trip of the season on Tuesday to Providence and got absolutely routed.

The Big East-Big 12 Battle wasn’t much of a battle.

The Friars shot 71% from the field in the first half and got a big boost from the return of leading scorer Bryce Hopkins, rolling past the Cougars 83-64 at Amica Mutual Pavilion.

The red-hot shooting by Providence — aided by a poor defensive effort from BYU — was only part of the problem for the Cougars, who missed a lot of shots early and never found a rhythm in the program’s worst loss since a 77-58 defeat at the hands of Washington State in a 2022 NIT game.

“There were stats tonight that I’ve never really seen before,” BYU coach Kevin Young said in his post-game interview on BYU Radio. “We were plus-27 on field goal attempts and only had five turnovers. But we had just a really inefficient night on the offensive end. And we had a really hard time guarding those guys. We couldn’t keep in front of them. They made plenty of shots as well, which clearly hurt.”

Dawson Baker came off the bench with 16 points (14 in the second half) but was the only Cougar in double figures. Freshmen Egor Demin and Kanon Catchings struggled on the offensive end, combining to shoot 1 of 18 from the field. Demin, with 22 pro scouts in the building to watch him, was 0-for-10 (0-5 from the 3-point line) with two assists and scored six points on free throws. Keba Keita contributed nine points and ten rebounds and Trevin Knell was 3 of 4 from distance for nine points.

BYU was a dismal 33% (23 of 69) from the field and 28% (7 of 25) despite 21 offensive rebounds, but its major problem was a lack of defense.

Providence torched the Cougars all night and finished 25 of 42 (60%) from the field and 12 of 22 (55%) from beyond the arc. Jabri Abdur-Rahim, who came in averaging 6.5 points per game, led the Friars with 21 points and Hopkins, who missed the first eight games recovering from an ACL injury suffered last season, added 16.

The Cougars were outplayed on both ends of the court in the first half. Providence made 11 of its first 13 shots (85%) and 5 of 7 from the 3-point line (71%) and eased to a 31-19 lead at the eight-minute mark. BYU, meanwhile, was a chilly 8 of 26 (31%) with many of the misses coming in the paint. Down 34-21, the Cougars managed a 9-0 run with a 3-pointer from Knell to close to 34-30 with 2:52 to play in the half. The Friars responded with a a trio of triples against the BYU zone and eventually reclaimed a 43-30 advantage that became a 46-34 lead at halftime.

“I thought the turning point was that stretch there at the end of the first half where they hit those threes,” Young said. “We’d cut the lead to four, then they made those big threes and pushed things out.”

Providence finished the first half at 71% (15 of 21) from the field and and 67% (8 of 12) from the 3-point line, with six different players making shots behind the arc. Abdur-Rahim had 11 for the Friars and Bensley Joseph scored 10 in a dominating performance in the first half.

Fousseyni Traore led BYU with eight points and Keita contributed six rebounds and four points, but the Cougars were just 12 of 37 (32%) from the field and 4 of 12 (33%) from distance.

Baker brought some life to BYU by scoring nine straight points to begin the second half. Knell’s 3-pointer trimmed the Providence lead to seven, 53-46, with 13:16 to play. The Friars immediately turned up their offense and went on a 13-3 run with two triples from Abdur-Rahim for a 66-49 advantage at the 9:31 mark. The Cougars had no other run in them and trailed by as many as 25 (80-55) late in the second half.

Providence has now won 32 of its past 33 non-conference games at home.

“It was an uncharacteristic game for us,” Young said. “A lot of things that have not happened thus far this season, happened tonight. It’s something we’ll have to respond to, for sure.”

BYU (6-2) will host Fresno State in the Marriott Center next Wednesday.