BYU basketball suffers its first loss of the season in OT against Ole Miss

BYU basketball lost for the first time this season in a back-and-forth battle with the Ole Miss Rebels at the Rady Children's Invitational in San Diego Thursday.

The Cougars flashed how good they can be, but too many mental lapses and turnovers ultimately cost them the game. The Rebels came out on top, 96-85.

The Cougars turned the ball over 17 times and gave up 36 free throw attempts to the Rebels. Carelessness with the ball and rotating late on defense were too much to overcome in this overtime thriller.

BYU started strong though it took two minutes and 21 seconds to score its first bucket. Once Kanon Catchings's first 3-point shot went down, the floodgates opened up for him and BYU.

The Cougars' offense was on the attack early. Catchings connected on four of his five 3-point attempts in the first half. BYU relied heavily on their 3-point shooting and made 7 of 18 from behind the line in the first half. Overall, the Cougars shot 12 of 27 from the field in the first half, two out of every three shots were 3s. The Cougars were able to take and make so many 3s because of how well they moved the ball early.

The biggest star for BYU in the first half was Richie Saunders. He scored a team-high 13 first-half points in the most Saunders way possible. A spot-up 3, multiple offensive rebounds and putbacks, a steal leading to a fast break layup, a nifty reverse layup, and four free throws. Rarely does Saunders ever have his name called to be the feature on offense, but his motor and intelligence are why he is so valuable to BYU.

The other bright spot for BYU in the first half was Mihailo Boskovic, whose activity on both sides of the ball changed the game. He was +5 in plus-minus in the first half, which led BYU. He hit two 3s on one of BYU's most run-set plays, called "snap" or "Spain."

The only thing that stopped the Cougars on offense was themselves. With 7:18 left in the first half, BYU led 31-21 and had a chance to go up big against Ole Miss. Unfortunately, Egor Demin played his worst half of the season and turned the ball over three times.

The Cougars had 10 first-half turnovers and multiple defensive mental lapses that allowed the Rebels to stay in the game. Those mental lapses on both ends of the floor allowed the Rebels to close the half on a run and the Cougars only led 42-39 at the break, which set up a dogfight that was the second half.

The second half was a different story for BYU. After leading for most of the first half, BYU trailed for most of the second half.

After a quiet first half from Demin and Fousseyni Traore, they both got going. Demin looked more comfortable, scoring 13 of his 16 points after halftime and playing much better defensively than in the first period.

Traore scored 12 of his 16 points after halftime and was BYU's only consistent threat against a physical Ole Miss defense. Traore's low center of gravity and the perimeter shooting surrounding BYU allowed him to do what he has done all season and go to work.

Down 59-52 with 9:42 left in the second half, it looked like the game was slipping away from BYU before a Dallin Hall fastbreak dunk and a Trevin Knell 3 helped get BYU back into the game.

From there, no team led by more than four points until overtime. Despite their mental lapses and turnovers, the Cougars showed grit and resilience and looked like they would pull out the win after Demin hit a 3 to go up 75-71.

After BYU's defense got a stop, Demin threw a careless pass to Saunders on the wing, which was picked off by Ole Miss wing Matthew Murrell, who got fouled on the break. He hit both free throws and on the next Rebels possession, Dre Davis scored off an offensive rebound to tie the game at 75-apiece with one minute left.

BYU called a timeout and it was time for BYU coach Kevin Young to reach into his end-of-game playbook. Playing for the two-for-one, Young had two more plays to run to try to put the game away. His first play call was a Saunders fake dribble handoff to Demin, which resulted in Saunders getting fouled on the way to the rim. Saunders hit both free throws to go up 77-75.

As was the story for BYU throughout the game, Ole Miss guard Jaylen Murray was too much for BYU's defense. He scored a career-high 28 points on 10 of 14 shooting from the field. He hit the game's most important shot on a ridiculously tough driving layup to tie the game.

Then, with one possession left before overtime, Young opted to give the ball to Traore in the post, but the Rebels loaded up on him, and the possession resulted in a difficult 14-foot float shot from Traore that missed.

Free basketball...

Ole Miss seized control in overtime early after a Catchings moving screen and a missed stepback 3 on back-to-back possessions. It did not get any better for the Cougars, who finished overtime 2 of 11 from the field and were outscored by the Rebels 19-8.

The Rebels won because they were the more physical team and valued each possession better than BYU. They outscored BYU 23-13 in points off turnovers, and their late-game execution was better than BYU's.

Ole Miss only had 11 assists on 31 field goals. The Rebels made plenty of difficult shots, but there were too many times when the Rebels beat the first line of defense and a Cougar defender was nowhere to be seen or late rotating.

After a strong first half on offense, BYU finished the game 26 of 64 from the field and 12 of 38 from the 3-point line. In the second half, Ole Miss forced BYU to beat them one-on-one and stalled BYU's ball movement.

It is early in the season, and there were growing pains Thursday for BYU. For now, getting the ball to Traore is its best source of offense, but the Cougars need to develop more counters to what the Rebels did on defense in the second half.

BYU now has a quick turnaround; the Cougars play North Carolina State on Friday afternoon. Although BYU can take a lot of positives from its loss against Ole Miss, it also has to improve on the many flaws that the Rebels exposed in their first test of the season.