Traore, Saunders power BYU men’s hoops past Idaho, 95-71
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- BYU’s Richie Saunders reacts to scoring a basket during a men’s college basketball game against Idaho in the Marriott Center on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU players celebrate with teammate Fousseyni Traore after he scored a career-high 29 points in a 95-71 victory against Idaho at the Marriott Center on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU’s Fousseyni Traore (45) shoots over an Idaho defender at the Marriott Center on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU’s Richie Saunders launches a 3-pointer against Idaho in a men’s college basketball game at the Marriott Center on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU’s Fousseyni Traore flexes with his teammates after scoring a career-high 29 points against Idaho at the Marriott Center on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
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- BYU men’s basketball coach Kevin Young talks to his team at halftime of a men’s college basketball game against Idaho at the Marriott Center on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
After four games, BYU is still struggling to make free throws consistently and hasn’t shown a lot of interest in playing great perimeter defense.
However, the Cougars do have Fousseyni Traore and Richie Saunders, and that was more than enough to beat Idaho on Saturday afternoon.
Traore scored a career-high 29 points, including 16 points in a row during one stretch in the second half, and Saunders added his own career high of 26 points as BYU recovered from a slow start to defeat the Vandals 95-71 in front of 16,456 fans at the Marriott Center.
Traore made his first nine field goals without a miss and finished 11 of 12 from the field, scoring 20 of his 29 points in the second half and adding nine rebounds, two assists and a block.
When Traore is cooking, his teammates encourage him to “bringing the boom,” and Traore brought it plenty on Saturday.
“If they (Idaho) are going to play him one-on-one in the post, I like his ability to get an angle down there,” BYU head coach Kevin Young said. “I thought our guys did a good job of finding him on some of those short rolls as well.”
Traore gave credit to his teammates passing as well, which allowed the 6-foot-6, 240-pound forward to use a variety of quick and powerful moves to the basket.
“My team was able to execute and give me space to work,” Traore said. “I’m super grateful how we can just help each other out.”
Saunders was also ultra-efficient offensively, creating offense with his energy on defense. Saunders logged four steals and three blocked shots, finishing 10 of 15 from the field (including 4 of 8 from the 3-point line) along with four rebounds and three assists.
“He’s hard to keep off the floor,” Young said. “He’s a guy that just creates his own offense and his own energy on defense, which turns into offense for us. He’s one of our most important guys. The guys look up to him because of how hard he plays and I thought he was incredible tonight.”
Freshman Egor Demin added a nice line with 16 points on 5 of 8 from the field along with seven assists, three blocks and three steals.
The Cougars were a woeful 6 of 16 (38%) from the charity stripe and the Vandals shot 7 of 10 (70%) from beyond the arc in the first half. A triple from Julius Mims pushed the Idaho lead to 13-6 at the 14:18 mark of the first half. The Cougars never had that explosive run home fans wanted but eventually moved to a 36-30 advantage when Demin stuck a 3-pointer with 3:32 to play.
Idaho, which at one point was shooting 65% from the floor and 5 of 6 from the 3-point line, cooled off a little but still tied the score at 38-all on a 3-pointer by Jack Payne late in the half. Trevin Knell made his only basket of the first half, a 3-pointer, with 36.8 seconds remaining to give the Cougars a 41-38 lead at the break.
“We just we let them get too loose from three,” Young said. “Our attention to detail wasn’t great in terms of trying to get out to their shooters, but I thought it was good for our guys to have to go through a game that was obviously closer than what the score indicated. To be able to try to execute things down the stretch I did. I was happy with our execution. I thought we ran some timely offense.”
BYU finally put some distance on the scoreboard with a 16-4 run, highlighted by Saunders rising up to block an Idaho jumper, recovering the ball and speeding downcourt for the dunk. It was 62-49 with 12:19 to play after Traore made a pair of free throws, the start of his 16 straight points that pushed the Cougar advantage to 76-57 with 6:53 remaining.
Asked about watching Traore got to work, Saunders said, “I just smile. I love it. He’s got the biggest left shoulder in the country and nobody could stop that.”
Idaho still shot 50% from the field (26 of 52) and 57% (12 of 21) from the 3-point line. Tyler Mrus led the Vandals (1-3) with 17 points and Mims added 14.
BYU ended up at 56% (33 of 59) from the field and made 5 of 9 from distance in the second half to finish 10 of 26 (38%). The Cougars made 13 of 14 from the line in the second half and had 12 steals, forcing 19 Idaho turnovers.
BYU (4-0) finishes of a five-game home stand next Saturday against Mississippi Valley State at the Marriott Center. The Cougars biggest tests of the regular season follow with two games at the Rady Children’s Invitational Nov. 28-29 (starting with No. 25 Ole Miss) and either No. 13 Purdue or North Carolina State. BYU will then take a trip to the East Coast for a game at Providence in the Big 12-Big East Challenge on Dec. 3.
