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BYU's Keba Keita (13) is interviewed after a 91-60 victory against Cal Baptist in a men's college basketball game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Keba Keita throws down a dunk against Cal Baptist in a men's college basketball game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's AJ Dybantsa takes a jumper against Cal Baptist in a men's college basketball game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Richie Saunders handles the ball against Cal Baptist in a men's college basketball game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Kennard Davis Jr. goes in for a layup against Cal Baptist in a men's college basketball game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's AJ Dybantsa goes up for a dunk against Cal Baptist in a men's college basketball game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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SALT LAKE CITY — Fear the headband.

BYU’s Richie Saunders has made wearing a white headband kind of his thing, but teammate Keba Keita borrowed some of that mojo on Wednesday at the Delta Center, scoring a BYU career-high 22 points and pulling down 14 rebounds in a 91-60 pounding of Western Athletic Conference favorite Cal Baptist.

“I was trying to steal some power from Richie,” Keita said in his post-game interview on ESPN+. “Hey, let me tell you a fun fact: Wearing this headband makes you see the basket two times bigger.”

Another headband-donned Cougar, freshman AJ Dybantsa, also saw the basket pretty well and scored 22 points as BYU led 42-25 at halftime and made 11 of 12 from the field to start the second half to blow the game open.

Both Keita and Dybantsa were 10 of 15 from the field, with Keita also contributing three blocks and Dybantsa finishing with five rebounds and five assists.

Keita was just one point off his career high in scoring: He had 23 against Southern Utah his sophomore season at the University of Utah.

“He (Keita) has had a little bit of a tough go because he’s had some injuries,” BYU head coach Kevin Young said. “He’s still kind of finding his wind out there. Teams have to make decisions on how they want to guard us. That team (Cal Baptist), statistically, the 3-point line is paralyzing a little bit. So Keba was open a lot around the paint, because there was more space in there. But he was phenomenal, the touch he showed around the basket tonight.”

On Dybantsa, Young added, “Analytically, that’s a team that they make you play one-on-one. Ironically, we had, I think, a season high in assists tonight (21). But I think it started with how much pressure we were putting on the rim. AJ was surgical down there getting to his spots and fell. I thought he had, like, 50, honestly, is what it felt like. But he was great tonight.”

Point guard Rob Wright III had 15 points and 11 assists and all five BYU starters finished in double figures with Saunders at 12 and Kennard Davis Jr. at 11.

The Cougars got off to a fast start, leading 14-5 on a Dybantsa 3-pointer with 13:22 to play in the first half and reaching a 24-13 advantage after a Keita 3-point play and a Dybantsa fast break score.

“Honestly, it felt good,” Wright said. “Coach was big on that coming to the game. He wanted us throw the first punch and try to compete in the first 10 minutes.”

Davis dropped in a 3-pointer at the 4:25 mark and BYU found itself up by 18, 36-18, and it was a 16-point lead at halftime. Dybantsa had 16 first-half points and Keita finished with 12 points and eight rebounds.

The Cougars were hot to start the second half as well and a 9-0 blitz, highlighted by a Saunders 3-pointer and a thundering dunk off the break by Khadim Mboup, pushed the BYU lead out to 57-35 with 14:55 remaining.

A 13-2 run, with two 3-pointers from Davis, another from Wright and a drive and dunk by Dybantsa, had the Cougars leading by 31, 70-39, with 11:52 to play. The largest BYU lead was 39 points, 87-48, with 3:53 remaining.

Martel Williams topped Cal Baptist (7-2) with 12 points but leading scorer Dominique Daniels Jr. was held to eight on 3 of 11 from the field (0-6 from 3) and he also committed five turnovers.

“I challenged the starters to really try to set the tone early for us,” Young said. “I thought Moo (Davis) was tremendous on Daniels. That’s a Player of the Year type guy in their league, and Moo and everyone else made it really hard on him. I thought that tone was set to start the game.”

No. 9 BYU (7-1) take to one of the world’s most revered courts next Tuesday when it plays Clemson at Madison Square Garden in New York.