Defense shows up but shooting struggles as BYU drops 72-67 decision to Texas Tech
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- BYU’s Fousseyni Traore (left) makes a move to get past Texas Tech’s Darrion Williams in a Big 12 men’s basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.
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- Trey Stewart (1) greets his teammates after making a 3-pointer to beat the first half buzzer against Texas Tech in a Big 12 men’s basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.
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- BYU’s Trey Stewart shoots a 3-pointer against Texas Tech in a Big 12 men’s college basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.
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- BYU’s Kanon Catchings (left) drives to the goal against Texas Tech in a Big 12 men’s basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.
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- BYU’s Dallin Hall drives to the hoop against Texas Tech in a Big 12 men’s basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.
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- BYU’s Fousseyni Traore (45) shoots the ball against Texas Tech in a Big 12 men’s college basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.
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- The BYU student section (The ROC) reacts during a Big 12 men’s college basketball game against Texas Tech in the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.
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- BYU’s Dallin Hall makes a move to the basket against Texas Tech in a Big 12 men’s basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.
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- BYU’s Fousseyni Traore (45) takes a shot against Texas Tech in a Big 12 men’s college basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.
Apparently, playing defense takes a lot out of BYU.
The Cougars held the No. 1 field goal percentage team in the country, Texas Tech, to just 37% from the field in the first half on Tuesday, their best defensive performance against a quality opponent this season. Unfortunately, BYU’s dreadful shooting from the 3-point arc (5 of 23, 22%) and the foul line (12 of 21, 57%) was its downfall in a 72-67 loss in front of 17,307 fans at the Marriott Center.
Those nine missed freebies at the stripe would have come in handy in a close game, which saw 15 lead changes and ten ties. Eventually the Cougars defense faltered as well, unable to get stops down the stretch as Texas Tech pulled away with big baskets from Chance McMillian and Darrion Williams.
“We didn’t execute that down the stretch, so, it’s disheartening, right?” BYU junior guard Dallin Hall said. “But it’s also good, because there are things that we can control and fix and see improvements on the next game. That’s what we’re about, is not being shaken in our confidence. We know we’re a really good team, and we have our best basketball ahead of us, but we’ve got a few things we’ve got to sharpen up and do it ASAP.”
Fousseyni Traore led BYU with 14 points, Egor Demin had 12 points and six assists and Mawot Mag came off the bench to score 11.
Elijah Hawkins, who came into the game averaging 7.7 points, led the Red Raiders (11-3, 2-1 Big 12) with 22 points and made 6 of 9 from the 3-point line. Williams had 18 and McMillian scored 13 of his 16 in the second half.
“What a remarkable environment this is to play a college basketball game,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “The energy in this building was tremendous from tip to finish. That’s why we have a lot of respect for what they (BYU) are doing and how they’re doing it. I thought we came up with timely plays and it starts with Elijah Hawkins, Darrion Williams and Chance McMillian. I thought those guys just hung in there. Our ability to limit their 3-point makes and beat them on the glass (39 to 36), that was the difference in the game.”
While the other four Big 12 games on Tuesday were blowouts (Iowa State, Baylor, Arizona and Oklahoma State collected wins by an average of 18.8 points), BYU and Texas Tech put on a pretty competitive show at the Marriott Center. The game was tied seven times and the lead changed hands ten times in the first half, the last on Trey Stewart’s 3-pointer that beat the halftime buzzer and gave the Cougars a 34-32 lead at the break.
BYU had a lot of missed opportunities to take control in the first 20 minutes, making just 6 of 12 from the foul line and converting only 2 of 11 from the 3-point line. Defensively, the Cougars did a good job on Red Raiders leading scorer J.T. Toppin (1 of 5 from the field, three points).
The Red Raiders led 20-17 at the 7:55 mark but BYU scored six straight, keyed by a Richie Saunders block of a Toppin shot that led to a driving layup by Hall, for a 23-20 lead with 6:43 to play.
Another 6-0 burst, ending with a Saunders drive for a bucket, put the Cougars up 31-27 at the 2:20 mark and Stewart buzzer-beating triple gave the home team a two-point lead at the half.
The second half was just as competitive as the first. Texas Tech edged out to a 43-39 lead with 14 minutes to go, but BYU went on a 7-0 run capped by a steal from Demin and a 3-pointer from Dawson Baker for a 39-35 advantage with 11:20 remaining. The Cougars led 53-48 with 8:19 to go on a basket inside from Traore and a drive and score by Demin. That lead went away quickly as BYU surrendered 3-pointers to Hawkins and McMillian, putting the visitors up 54-53 with 6:59 to play. McMillian and Williams dominated with one-on-one moves to the goal that the Cougars were unable to stop. Texas Tech shot 54% (15 of 28) from the field in the second half.
“We have not been in a lot of close games, and so we have to be able to learn from this quickly and be able to fix things that we didn’t do to close it out,” BYU coach Kevin Young said.
“And every team is going to have a good player that you got to get the ball out of their hands in some form or fashion. My hope is that our guys, young guys and veterans alike, can kind of come together and fix it moving forward.”
BYU (10-4, 1-2) looks for its first true road win of the season on Saturday at TCU, which lost at No. 12 Houston 65-46 on Monday.
