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BYU's AJ Dybantsa reacts while throwing down a dunk against UC Riverside at the Marriott Center on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Richie Saunders goes in for a dunk against UC Riverside in a men's college basketball game at the Marriott Center on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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The BYU men’s basketball team sure knows how to send fans to the exits with a smile on their face.

The outcome of Saturday’s game at the Marriott Center was never really in doubt — it was No. 10 BYU against UC-Riverside (NET ranking: 205) — so Cougar fans were just there for the highlights.

Most of them were deep into their popcorn and Cougar Tails midway through the second half with the Cougars leading by 35 points when AJ Dybantsa came up with a steal and fed the ball ahead to Saunders on the break. Saunders could have sailed in for a layup but instead, it was showtime.

“I gave him (Saunders) a look,” Dybantsa said. “I kind of have this look when I’m looking for a lob.”

Saunders tossed a perfect alley oop to Dybantsa, who scraped the ceiling with his knuckles as he gathered the ball in and threw down a ferocious two-handed dunk.

The move brought most of the 17,982 spectators to their feet, many of whom began to gather their things to leave.

They’d seen enough.

BYU finished with plenty of other “did-you-just-see-that?” highlights in a 100-53 victory to move to 9-1, outscoring the Highlanders 52-21 in the second half in its first game at the Marriott Center in over a month.

Dybantsa? Well, the heralded freshman was coming off an electrifying performance at Madison Square Garden in a comeback win against Clemson that had the college basketball world buzzing. All he did on Saturday was score 26 points (16 in the second half) and grab eight rebounds while and posting career highs in assists (seven) and steals (four).

With a very talented freshman class across the country, including Duke’s Cam Boozer, Darryn Peterson of Kansas and Caleb Wilson of North Carolina, BYU coach Kevin Young had a few things to say about his young star.

“He was unbelievable tonight,” Young said. “That was ridiculous what he just did out there. It’s almost like people forget about this guy. I mean, you hear all this stuff about all these other guys. I know I’m biased, because I’m around him all day. It’s ‘Oh, this other guy might be the No. 1 pick.’ And it’s like, don’t forget about this guy.

“We’re going to win a lot of games because of how good he is. But it’s more about he’s good because he’s talented. He’s a team guy, and they’re hard to find.”

Oh, by the way: Dybantsa has scored 209 points in his first 10 games. The only other BYU freshman to score 200 points in his first ten games was someone named Danny Ainge.

“I’m confident in my abilities,” Dybantsa said. “If they don’t want to talk, it’s kind of better for me. I can just work in silence and just do what I do. If you want to forget about me, forget. I’m just trying to produce for my team.”

Saunders, who finished with 19 points, scored ten of BYU’s first 12 points and Dybantsa’s baseline drive and dunk made the score 15-5 at the 14:40 mark of the first half. Aleksej Kostic came off the bench and banged in three straight 3-pointers, pushing the Cougars lead to 32-18 with 7:40 to go.

BYU led 49-32 at the half and came out on fire in the second, rolling out an 18-0 run with Dybantsa’s 3-point play making the score 71-37 with 12:23 to play. He fed Saunders for a dunk and his alley-oop slam made it 79-42.

“There were a couple of things we wanted to emphasize tonight,” Young said. “The No. 1 thing offensively was just playing with the pass more in transition. So that was the most — we call them ‘kick aheads’ — that we’ve had in a game this year. Subsequently we had the most fast break points we’ve had, which is easier to do when you’re getting stops. Then the 22 assists, that’s more how we want to play. I thought the guys were really good there.”

Kostic finished with a career-high 15 points on 5 of 8 from the 3-point line and Khadeem Mboup tallied is first career double-double with 12 points and ten rebounds. The Cougars scored a season-best 36 bench points and as you might expect, dominated other key stats: 20-3 in points off turnovers, 47-30 on rebounds, 54-26 on points in the paint and 29-6 on fast break points.

BYU shot 59% from the field (39 of 66) and 47% from 3 (9 of 19).

“The mentality we’ve had in the second half, we’re just trying to bring that to the first half,” Dybantsa said. “We’ve been coming out pretty lazy. Our second half has been good, but we just wanted to bring that in the first half. I think we had one of our better transition games. We had 22 assists, which was a great stat.”

BYU continues its four-game home stand on Tuesday against former West Coast Conference foe Pacific.