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Richie Saunders (15) made five 3-pointers in the first half of a Big 12 men's basketball game against Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Egor Demin (3) drives against Arizona State's Ami Ali in a Big 12 men's basketball game at Tempe, Ariz., on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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The BYU men's basketball celebrates a win at Arizona State on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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The second game of a six-day road trip didn’t go exactly as planned for No. 25 BYU on Wednesday in Tempe.

The Cougars were awful from the foul line (6 of 15, 40%) and never could completely shake a severely short-handed Arizona State team.

But what BYU did well — making 3-point shots — cured all of its ills.

The Cougars made a season-high 17 triples against the Sun Devils and finished with a 91-81 victory, their fifth Big 12 win in a row and, along with the thriller at Arizona on Saturday, a sweep of the Grand Canyon State.

“Games like this are hard,” BYU coach Kevin Young said on his post-game radio interview. “For us to come in, especially being on the road, I’m happy we handled things the right way. Credit to them (Arizona State), because they made it difficult. But our guys were able to execute down the stretch and get it done.”

BYU’s offense is shifting into high gear as March approaches. The Cougars have scored 90-plus points in three consecutive games and have tallied at least 40 points in nine straight halves.

“It’s just amazing to see how everything is just clicking,” senior forward Fousseyni Traore said. “Coach is always talking about stacking day, every day, and I feel like that’s what we’ve been doing. As as long as we’re having fun, when it’s time to focus everybody stays locked in. I feel like that’s one of the best thing about this team.”

Richie Saunders, who scored a season-high 30 points against the Sun Devils back on Dec. 31, put up 26 on Wednesday, dropping in 6 of 11 from distance. Trevin Knell was 5 of 6 from beyond the arc and ended up with 18 points.

“They got us off to a good start, knocking down shots,” Young said. “It’s really a team effort to get them those kinds of looks. The way Egor (Demin) passes, the way Dallin (Hall) passes, you got bigs rolling so with that kind of shooting around, teams have to make a choice. Those guys (Saunders and Knell) were able to get us going right out of the gate. And anytime you make threes, you have a lot of assists, too. So 21 assists on 11 turnovers combined with 17 threes. I thought that was really what carried us offensively.”

Hall (13 points) and Traore (10) also scored in double figures. Demin had just two points but dished out 10 assists. The Cougars finished 17 of 34 (50%) from three and 55% (34 of 62) overall.

Basheer Jihad led Arizona State (13-15 overall, 4-13 Big 12) with 19 points. Joson Sanon and freshman Trevor Best had 18 points each, with Best’s performance especially impressive since he’d only played nine minutes all season up to Wednesday.

Arizona State was without leading scorer BJ Freeman (13.7 points per game), who was dismissed from the team on Sunday, and freshman big man Jayden Quaintance (9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds per game), who was injured. Adam Miller (10.2 ppg), missed significant time due to an injury as well. Before the game, second leading scorer Alton Mason (12.7) was ruled out due to illness.

BYU made its first five 3-point shots — three from Knell and two from Saunders — to get out to a quick 17-9 lead. A Traore score inside gave the Cougars a 21-11 advantage with 14:14 to play in the half. BYU led by as many as 12 points (42-30) and settled for a 47-37 halftime lead.

Saunders and Knell combined to shoot 9 of 13 from the 3-point line in the first half.

The Cougars led by double digits nearly the entirety of the second half but could never really pull away from the Sun Devils, who were down to five scholarship players. Bashir and Joson both played 40 minutes and Amier Ali 39 as ASU coach Bobby Hurley’s bench got shorter and shorter.

Keba Keita scored six straight points, including an alley-oop dunk on a pass from Demin, and Mawot Mag hit a 3-pointer for a 48-42 BYU lead with 16:13 to play.

The Cougars missed three front ends of one-and-one free throw attempts and converted just 1 of 2 from the line on two separate technical foul situations but shared the ball well (21 assists) and led by as many as 17 points in the win.

BYU (20-8, 11-6) returns home on Saturday for a rematch with West Virginia in the Marriott Center. The Cougars beat the Mountaineers 73-69 on Feb. 11 in Morgantown to start their current five-game winning streak.