Tough crowd.

You might have thought fans would have been more than entertained by the No. 8 Cougars, who had many highlight dunks and spectacular plays in a 98-53 victory against Holy Cross on Saturday.

“Anytime we compete against somebody else at this point of the season, it feels good because it’s hard to learn about our group when we’re just playing against each other,” BYU head coach Kevin Young said. “So I think that’s the big takeaway, just trying to learn and see areas that we can improve upon. I thought our defense was really good. I thought offensively, we had our moments.”

BYU’s “Big Three” of Richie Saunders, AJ Dybantsa and Rob Wright III led the way, all three making 7 of 10 field goals (70%). Saunders topped all scorers with 20 points and four steals. Dybantsa finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists as well as three impressive drive-and-dunk plays. Wright had 15 points and three assists, with Kennard Davis Jr. and Dawson Baker adding 12 points each.

The Cougars caused 15 turnovers and produced a 24-2 advantage in points off turnovers. BYU also held a huge edge in points in the paint (62-28), totaled 12 steals and led in fast break points 21-8.

The Cougars finished 32 of 38 (82%) on shots inside the 3-point arc, most of them right at the rim.

“We kind of worked on it all week in practice after the Villanova game, because we were missing some layups,” Wright said. “So I think it was definitely a focus.”

Holy Cross (0-2), which shot 35% from the field and 13.6% from 3 (3 of 22), was led by Tyler Boston with 12 points and A Richard with 11.

The Cougars jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first three minutes and Holy Cross didn’t make its first field goal until the 14:55 mark. Saunders had 10 points in the first eight minutes and his drive was followed by a steal and dunk from Khadim MBoup, pushing the BYU lead to 21-4.

Later, Dominique Diomande had back-t0-back fast break throw downs and the Cougars were up 45-18. BYU led 58-25 at halftime, led by Saunders and Wright with 12 points each and Dybantsa with 11 points and seven boards.

A pair of 3-pointers by Davis and a strong drive by Dybantsa made the score 67-29 with 16:42 to play in the game.

BYU’s largest lead was 46 points, 91-45, with 5:32 to play.

“It (the defense) can be suffocating at times,” Young said. “We forced 15 turnovers and we forced quite a few the other night against Villanova as well. That’s something that was not a strength of our last year. We definitely want to recruit to that a little bit more. I think we’re going to be able to get a lot more stops and be able to run off of our defense and have some exciting plays in transition, like what we saw tonight. We’re so excited about what we could do with that moving forward.”

The Cougars (2-0) host Delaware on Tuesday and ramp things up on Saturday in the Hall of Fame Series Boston at TD Garden against No. 4 UConn.

Pickens out for season

Women’s hoops tops San Jose State

Delaney Gibb scored 21 points and Olivia Hamlin added 18 as BYU women’s basketball defeated San José State 70-51 on Saturday afternoon at the Marriott Center, improving to 2-0 on the season.

“I thought we did a really good job creating advantages and playing out of those advantages unselfishly on offense,” said BYU head coach Lee Cummard. “Overall, I’m pleased with holding a team to 51 points, even though we didn’t play great in the second half or the fourth quarter defensively. Got some things to improve on, but we also saw good things.”

Gibb led all scorers with 21 points on 6-of-17 shooting, including 5-of-11 from three, while also adding six rebounds and six assists. Hamlin contributed a career-high 18 points on 5-of-12 shooting and went a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line.

The Cougars controlled the game from start to finish, using a 13-0 second-quarter run to build a double-digit lead that they never relinquished. Most of the 13-0 run came off of transition buckets as BYU outscored the Spartans 20-4 in fast-break points. BYU led 35-25 at halftime and extended the advantage to as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter.

Forward Lara Rohkohl nearly posted a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds, while sophomore guard Brinley Cannon added seven points, nine rebounds and two assists. Sydney Benally tallied five assists, three steals and a block

The Cougars dominated the boards 54-45, including 21 offensive rebounds that led to 19 second-chance points. BYU forced 22 turnovers and held the Spartans to just 30 percent shooting and 18 percent from behind the arc.

Shooting was also an issue for the Cougars, who were just 9 of 41 (22%) from the 3-point line against the Spartans.

BYU will host Omaha on Thursday at 7 p.m. MST at the Marriott Center. Watch the broadcast live on ESPN+. Fans can also tune in to Jason Shepherd on BYU Radio 107.9 FM, byuradio.org and the BYU Radio App.