No. 20 Arizona pulls away late as BYU goes ice cold
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- BYU’s Egor Demin (3) drives in a for a layup against Arizona in a Big 12 men’s basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
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- BYU’s Mawot Mag (0) drives past an Arizona defender in a Big 12 men’s basketball in the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
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- BYU’s Richie Saunders takes a 3-pointer against Trey Townsend of Arizona in a Big 12 men’s basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
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- Current BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff (right) poses for a photo with former Cougar Zac Wilson at a Cougar basketball game against Arizona at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
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- BYU’s Richie Saunders comes to the bench before the start of a Big 12 men’s basketball game against Arizona at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
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- BYU President Shane Reese, left, greets members of the ROC (Roar of Cougars) student section before the start of a Big 12 men’s basketball game with Arizona at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
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- A group of Arizona men’s basketball fans take a photo in front of the BYU student section before the start of a Big 12 game between the Wildcats and the Cougars at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.
For more than 30 minutes, BYU stood toe to toe with No. 20 Arizona.
In the end, the Wildcats offensive efficiency was too much to overcome.
Put more simply, the Cougars needed stops.
Couldn’t get them.
It also didn’t help that BYU went seven minutes without a field goal late in the second half as Arizona ran away for an 85-74 victory in front of 17,274 fans in a late night ESPN tip at the Marriott Center on Tuesday.
“They’re a good club,” Cougar coach Kevin Young said. “They’ve got good players. They’re talented. Tommy (Lloyd) obviously is a very experienced coach and does a great job. Give them credit, they played well. We were taking the ball out of the net. We’re a team that thrives in transition, thrives with pace. They shot 14 free throws in the second half, made 13 of them. That slows the game down. That wasn’t the case in the first half. That was the difference in the game.”
A 3-pointer from Kanon Catchings gave BYU a 61-60 lead at the 11:20 mark of the second half and the home fans came to their feet for what they hoped would be a strong stretch run. Instead, Arizona star Caleb Love answered right back with a triple of his own. Dallin Hall, who scored nine of his 11 points in the second half and added a team-leading six assists, banged in a 3-pointer and scored on a drive to cut the Wildcats advantage to one, 67-66, with 7:43 to play.
What followed was a dreadful stretch of nine straight missed field goal attempts for BYU. Arizona, meanwhile, got 11 points from Jaden Bradley (he had all 17 of his points in the second half) and pulled away doing something the Cougars might want to look into: Making free throws. The Wildcats converted eight straight at the line to stretch their lead. Saunders scored on an offensive rebound with 47 seconds remaining to end BYU’s drought but the home team was down 84-72 at that point.
Through the final five minutes, Arizona fans in the building started up their “U of A!” chant. BYU fans tried to drown out the noise but it was a weak effort as Arizona took control of the game.
CougarStats posted on social media that Arizona’s offensive efficiency in the second half was 144. Whatever that number means, it simply overwhelmed BYU.
“Our theme for the week was ‘habits,'” said Lloyd, who has plenty of experience coaching in the Marriott Center as an assistant at Gonzaga for 20 years. “What an opportunity to practice your habits and we were able to do that in an amazing atmosphere. These guys, they crushed it.”
Love added 18 points to Bradley’s big second half and Arizona big men Henri Veesaar and Tony Awaka tormented BYU all night, combining to score 31 points on 14 of 18 from the field while grabbing 15 rebounds.
The Wildcats shot 15 of 17 from the foul line, making 12 straight at one point in the second half. Arizona (16-6 overall, 10-1 Big 12) also had a big advantage in rebounding (44 to 30).
Freshman Egor Demin led BYU with 16 points but was just 7 of 20 from the field, including 2 of 9 from the 3-point line. Richie Saunders was 3 of 8 shooting and scored 11 points. After a decent first half beyond the arc, the Cougars were a chilly 3 of 16 from distance in the second half and finished 10 of 34 (29%). Once again, BYU struggled at the foul line when it was a close game and finished just 8 of 14 (57%).
“We missed a couple of good looks,” Hall said of the Cougars cold finish. “I thought we got a little stagnant offensive, and then we let our lack of stops defensively creep into our energy offensively, which is not something that we want to happen.”
Both teams showed off brilliant stretches of play in the first half, which feature eight ties and eight lead changes. Arizona pushed out to an eight-point lead, 18-10, after a 10-0 run but the Cougars fought back, eventually taking the lead at 25-24 after a 13-4 burst that features a pair of 3-pointers from Dawson Baker and one from Saunders. An alley-oop pass from Demin to Keba Keita resulted in a dunk and the Cougars led 32-29 after Mawot Mag rebounded a miss and fed Saunders for another triple. The two teams both went 5 of 6 from the field in the final four minutes, with a late basket from Veesaar tying things up at 41-all at the break.
BYU (15-7, 6-5) will travel to Cincinnati on Saturday. The Cougars routed the Bearcats 80-52 on Jan. 25. Cincinnati will play at UCF on Wednesday.
