Sweet, Sweet 16: BYU outruns Wisconsin 91-89 in NCAA Tournament
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- BYU’s Richie Saunders celebrates a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU’s Richie Saunders (15) shoots a layup against Wisconsin in a second-round NCAA Tournament game at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU’s Keba Keita against Wisconsin in a second-round NCAA Tournament game at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU’s Egor Demin (right) hugs teammate Trevin Knell after a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- From the left, BYU’s Dawson Baker, Dallin Hall and Fousseyni Traore celebrate a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU’s Trevin Knell shoots a 3-pointer at the end of the first half against Wisconsin in a second-round NCAA Tournament game at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU’s Trevin Knell reacts after making a 3-pointer at the end of the first half against Wisconsin in a second-round NCAA Tournament game at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU head coach Kevin Young (right) celebrates a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU’s Trey Stewart celebrates a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU wide receiver Parker Kingston enjoys the BYU-Wisconsin men’s basketball NCAA Tournament game at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU’s Mawot Mag (0) talks to head coach Kevin Young during a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU men’s basketball coach Kevin Young (left) reacts during a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU’s Trey Stewart dribbles out the final seconds of a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- BYU men’s basketball coach Kevin Young gives instructions in a time out against Wisconsin in a second-round NCAA Tournament game at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- Former BYU star Jimmer Fredette (in white) looks up at the scoreboard during the BYU-Wisconsin men’s basketball NCAA Tournament game at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- From left, BYU’s Trevin Knell, Richie Saunders and Egor Demin address the media after a 91-89 victory against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
DENVER — BYU finally figured out how to win a second round NCAA Tournament game.
Never let the other team get the lead.
Surely playing in the Mile High City was a factor — Cougar fans understood the assignment with a drivable game and filled up Ball Arena — but BYU led for 39 minutes and 28 seconds with a remarkable offensive performance in Saturday’s wildly entertaining 91-89 victory against No. 3 seed Wisconsin.
The Badgers tied the game at 2-2 and at 5-5 but BYU never trailed, leading by as many as 14 points. Wisconsin made a late run and closed to within two with 13.5 seconds remaining to create peak anxiety for Cougar Nation.
What came next was BYU’s biggest defensive sequence of the season.
Wisconsin’s John Tonje, who led all scorers with 37 points, took BYU’s Mawot Mag down to the right baseline as the seconds ticked off the clock. Mag used all of his defensive abilities to lock up Tonje, who shot-faked several times and forced up a fade away jumper. Tonje was gifted 16 free throws by a generous officiating crew but the Badgers top scorer was left slumped on the ground begging for a call as the shot caught nothing but air.
Keba Keita snagged the rebound and launched the ball ahead to Trey Stewart. The clock expired but just for fun, Stewart threw the ball off the backboard to himself for a dunk and the celebration by the team and the BYU faithful began to shake the foundations of the arena.
Newark, the Cougars are coming for you.
BYU’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 2011 has arrived.
Mag, who BYU recruited out of the portal this summer specifically for his defense, said he may have gotten a little piece of Tonje’s shot.
“I was just trying to make it as difficult as possible,” Mag said. “I didn’t want to draw a foul because they were in the double bonus. I saw he was grabbing his dribble and he wanted to see if I would bite or not (on the shot fakes). I stayed down and just tried to make him shoot a tough shot.”
BYU head coach Kevin Young is big on reminding his team they’ve been in tough situations before, and that was the message preceding the final play.
“Coach Young brought us in at the time out and he said, ‘Hey, this happened at Arizona. This happened at Iowa State,'” senior guard Trevin Knell said. “He’s like, ‘I want you guys all looking me in the eye.’ He had that conviction. He said, ‘We’re going to get a stop.’ So we have that kind of faith, that kind of conviction. We settled into our game plan and Mo (Mag) is a tremendous defender and was able to get the stop.”
Richie Saunders was terrific against the Badgers, scoring 25 points and pulling down seven rebounds. Knell was 4 of 6 from the 3-point line and scored 14 points. Freshman Egor Demin totaled 11 points, eight rebounds and eight assists (with just one turnover) and Keba Keita was also in double figures with 10 points along with three blocks.
Key contributions also came off the bench from Dawson Baker (eight points) and Trey Stewart (seven points) as the Cougars won the rebound battle 41-32 (including 13 offensive boards), outscored Wisconsin 38-28 in the paint and only committed nine turnovers.
“Man, what an unbelievable basketball game,” Young said. “Two hungry teams. Obviously there was a decent amount of talk of how prolific both of our offenses were, and that second half was on full display for both teams. Glad we were on the winning side of it. Just super proud of our guys’ resiliency. We just found a way.”
Tonje was 14 of 16 from the foul line and made three 3-pointers to get to his 37 points and teammate John Blackwell added 21 with four triples.
The Cougars caused three early Wisconsin turnovers and took advantage of the frenetic pace. BYU converted those three turnovers into seven points and got out to a 16-8 lead (seven points from Saunders).
There was more where that came from.
The Cougars erupted on a 14-2 blitz and a Saunders 3-pointer gave them a 30-16 lead at the 7:26 mark. Wisconsin stayed in the game with some good shot making and favorable officiating, including a technical foul on Mag for pointing up at the replay on the Jumbotron after a particularly bad call.
Baker fed Keita for a monster alley-oop that left the basket shaking for a good 20 seconds and the Cougars were up 44-31 with 2:05 remaining.
A basket by Tonje cut the BYU lead to 44-36 in the last minute of the half. On the Cougars final possession, Demin spun around and got a pass to Knell in the corner for a wide-open 3-pointer and the Cougars took a 47-36 lead at the break.
Wisconsin made five of its first six shots to open the second half and quickly cut the deficit to four with 17:01 to play. The game followed a pattern of BYU getting back out to a a double-digit lead but the Badgers, led by 23 second-half points by Tonje, kept reeling the Cougars back in.
BYU led by 10, 86-76, on a driving layup by Saunders with 4:07 to play. A flagrant foul on Baker during a scramble for a loose ball led to his ejection with 3:11 remaining. Demin made a clutch 3-pointer for an 89-78 Cougar lead with 2:34 left but Tonje dropped in a triple then scored a conventional 3-point play to bring the Badgers to within two, 91-89, with a minute to go.
Demin missed a 3-pointer but Wisconsin knocked the ball out of bounds, draining the clock to 30 seconds. Dallin Hall missed a driving shot and the Badgers came up with the rebound, calling time out to set up the final 13 seconds.
BYU (26-9) will play at the Prudential Center in New Jersey next Thursday in the Sweet 16 against the winner of Sunday’s matchup in Cleveland, Ohio, between No. 2 seed Alabama and No. 7 seed Saint Mary’s.
Saunders, whose legend is growing larger every tournament game beyond the story about his great-grandfather inventing Tater Tots, was asked what is the biggest factor to his team’s success.
“The resilience and the response,” he said, “Every day, every practice we just have to respond. And this game was the same thing. We had to respond at the end.”
