BYU faced Delaware Tuesday night in the Marriott Center, winning 85–68 and improving to 3-0 on the season.
Despite the 17-point victory, the box score is not all that it seems.
Much to the home crowd’s surprise, Delaware came out of the gate running.
Delaware quickly won the tip and immediately put two on the board. Then, a foul had the Blue Hens make three more on the free throw line. Then, a 3-pointer. And another 3.
In just six minutes of game time, the score was 17–4. Advantage: Delaware.
“They had a great game plan,” said BYU coach Kevin Young. “They slowed the game down, they mucked it up, they played zone from the first play on.”
Delaware’s zone defense proved successful, inviting the Cougars to take bad shots in the gaps.
As a result, BYU started the game ice-cold, carrying over its poor three-point shooting performances from Villanova and Holy Cross, where it shot 29.4% and 28%, respectively.
With 2:50 left in the first half, Rob Wright III finally buried a 3 for BYU, putting the Cougars at an abysmal 1–12 from three when the first half expired, good for 8.3%.
At the end of the half, Delaware was up three points, 37–34.
The second half, however, was a completely different story.
“Every game has a life of its own,” Young said. “You just have to find what buttons to push.”
The buttons in question: “We started to play faster … The recipe was to play fast, get to the paint, and then get 3s.”
It was none other than BYU’s “big three” who followed the recipe to a tee and pushed all of the buttons.
Combining for 70 of the team’s 85 total points, A.J. Dybantsa, Rob Wright III, and Richie Saunders recreated their performances against Holy Cross and then some, pouring in 46 of those points in just the second half alone.
Richie Saunders offered a double-double for his best performance of the season: 26 points and 10 rebounds on 56% field goal shooting. All six of his made threes came in the second half, including a couple of back-to-back sequences, good for 55% overall.
The secret to his second-half resurgence? Simple.
“Just keep shooting,” Saunders said.
As time ultimately expired, however, the player of the game was clear: Wright.
He finished with 26 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists, going 9–17 from the field and 4–7 from three-point range, while committing only two turnovers.
Wright’s ability to force himself into the paint at will was on full display, and it was ultimately the spark that gave BYU the momentum to claw back into the game, and eventually win.
Both Young and Wright collectively agreed that “it was instinct” that dictated Wright’s performance.
While BYU’s “big three” pulled through in the biggest ways possible, the bench unit only scored four points collectively.
Big 12 conference play and tournament games notoriously require depth and resilience for the victors. As BYU’s schedule sharpens incredibly quickly in the coming weeks, those traits will be tested.
BYU’s next test comes as soon as Saturday, when the Cougars take on No. 3 UConn at the TD Garden in Boston.