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BYU's Robert Wright III takes a shot against Delaware in a men's college basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Athletics

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BYU's Richie Saunders (left) takes a 3-pointer against Delaware in a men's college basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Athletics

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BYU's AJ Dybantsa dunks the ball in a men's college basketball game against Delaware at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Athletics

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A look at the final score of Tuesday’s game between No. 7 BYU and Delaware would have you believe it was just another run-of-the-mill non-conference college basketball blowout.

It was not.

BYU head coach Kevin Young likes to say that every game has a life of its own, and The Cougars were DOA to start against the Blue Hens, falling behind 10-0 in the first two minutes and trailing 17-4 six minutes in. The Cougars eventually found a heartbeat in the second half of an 85-68 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 18,299 at the Marriott Center.

“I thought we did a much better job playing faster,” Young said. “I thought we were kind of on our heels, allowing them to dictate the tempo of the game. That takes an emotional toll on you, too. But I thought our guys figured out the recipe was playing fast, get to the paint and then get threes. We were settling for no-pain-touch threes early on.”

BYU’s Rob Wright III (26 points, nine rebounds, nine assists), Richie Saunders (26 points, 10 rebounds) and AJ Dybantsa (18 points, seven rebounds) scored 70 of the Cougars 85 points, including combining for 46 points in the second half.

“Props to Delaware for coming out with an incredible game plan and executing,” Saunders said. “I was really happy with our response. As a young team that’s trying to figure everything out, this was really good thing for us to face adversity and to meet it head on and just find a way to win.”

Delaware, picked to finish 11th (out of 12) in Conference USA and coming off a home loss to Division II Wilmington, took advantage of BYU’s slow start to get out in front and began using the entire shot clock on every possession, with Jameel Brown (11 points in the first half) and Christian Bliss (eight points) hitting shots to beat the buzzer on several occasions.

Young credited Delaware coach Martin Inglesby for making the game tough for the Cougars early on.

“They had a great game plan,” Young said. “They slowed the game down, they mucked it up. They played zone from the first play on and that was a well-executed game plan. It kind of put our guys in mud. I told the guys that every game has a life of its own so we just had to find what buttons to push, from a coaching standpoint and a playing standpoint, and our guys did that.”

Despite missing their first 11 3-point attempts, the Cougars managed to close to within 37-34 at halftime. Dybantsa tied things up at 37 with a 3-pointer to start the second half and moments later took an inadvertent elbow to the nose, which drew blood and sent him to the bench.

A Saunders triple gave BYU its first lead at 48-46 with 14:45 to play and the “Rob and Richie Show” allowed the Cougars to pull away. Wright assisted to Saunders for back-to-back 3-pointers and made one beyond the arc himself for 64-54 lead with under ten minutes to play.

Following a Saunders block, Wright fed Dybantsa for a transition one-handed slam and moments later the fabulous freshman brought the Marriott Center crowd to their feet with a follow dunk that produced a 70-57 BYU advantage.

The Cougars led by 23 points, 85-62, with three minutes left.

Wright’s 26 points was a career high, topping the 24 he totaled last year for Baylor against Kansas.

“I think my instincts kind of just kicked in,” Wright said. “It looked like we needed a spark. So I just came up big and provided that spark and got Richie going and got the guys going and kind of gave us some momentum.”

BYU outscored the Blue Hens 51-31 in the second half and made 11 of 20 (55%) from distance. The Cougars outrebounded the visitors 46-25 (with 19 offensive rebounds).

Bliss and Macon Emery scored 18 points each for Delaware (0-3), which shot 46% (11 of 24) from the 3-point line.

BYU (3-0) travels to the East Coast for a Saturday matchup with No. 3 UConn at TD Garden in Boston.

Senior Dawson Baker started against Delaware in place of Kennard Davis Jr., who sat out the game with hamstring soreness. Young said he expected Davis to be able to play on Saturday.