DENVER — BYU keeps on dancing.
The No. 6 seeded Cougars survived a nail-biting finish and John Tonje’s offensive onslaught to beat Wisconsin 91-89 on Saturday to advance to the Sweet 16 — BYU’s first appearance since Jimmermania in 2011.
The cardiac Cougars found a way to stay alive in the NCAA Tournament by getting a much-needed stop in the very last possession.
“We felt like we couldn't stop them at all in the second half,” BYU coach Kevin Young said, “and in that last time-out, man, we just looked each other in the eye and said all we've got to do is get one-stop, that's it.”
A crowd of BYU fans filled Ball Arena for the second round, even larger than the crowd that attended Thursday's opening game. Constant chants of “BYU” filled the arena during any stoppage of play, coming from fans who were excited for a long-awaited tournament run.
They were rewarded for their support.
“Just the energy in the building, you can't describe it,” Young said. “It felt like, honestly, a home game in certain moments for Cougar Nation, just everywhere, just so much blue out there.”
BYU started red-hot from the field, making three of its first four shots from the field and forcing two turnovers on the defensive end. That quick lead kept the Cougars in front of Wisconsin for the entirety of the first half.
Egor Demin has turned into a different animal in the NCAA tournament. He once again got the Cougars started in the scoring column, scoring eight quick points in the first half. He finished with a near triple-double with 11 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
All signs pointed towards a track meet, and that’s exactly what fans got. Each team traded 3-pointers back and forth throughout the game, which energized the entire arena all night long.
BYU elected to use a different lineup than what fans saw against VCU. Mihailo Boskovic made his first NCAA tournament appearance and hit a big 3-pointer in the first half. He played what were Kanon Catching’s minutes in the first-round game against VCU.
Five separate runs of at least five points in the first half extended the BYU lead to 14. The Cougars pushed the pace against what looked like a worn-down and surprised Wisconsin team.
Despite being undersized, Wisconsin’s bigs were not an issue for both Fousseyni Traore and Keba Keita. BYU dominated them in the paint and on the glass. The Cougars’ game plan seemed to be focused on late closeouts and daring both 7-footers to shoot the basketball from three, which worked in their favor.
Wisconsin went cold in the middle of the first half, missing nine straight field goals. BYU couldn’t capitalize on the cold shooting from the Badgers, as the Cougars missed on open shots and struggled with turnovers.
BYU was plagued with foul calls in the first half that led to many Wisconsin free throws. Any time teams can score with the clock stopped, a lead is a lot easier to cut into. Wisconsin managed to whittle a 14-point deficit down to just eight with Saunders on the bench.
Trevin Knell hit a huge three to close out the first half as BYU went to the locker room up 47-36, giving the Cougars momentum.
The track meet continued as both teams came out of halftime on the same high-scoring pace. Wisconsin went on an 8-0 run to cut the BYU lead to 4. The Badgers leading scorer, John Tonje came alive in the second half to keep Wisconsin within striking range.
BYU battled back and forth throughout the first few minutes of the second half. The Cougars managed to stretch the lead back out to eight thanks to unlikely hero, Trey Stewart.
Stewart came in and took a quick drive to the rim, sunk both free throws and on the next possession, knocked down a big 3-pointer.
His partner-in-crime, Knell, came in for Stewart and hit two big 3-pointers to push the lead back to 10 with eight minutes left to play.
Despite the big shots on offense, the Cougars struggled with defensive miscues as soon as it looked like they were about to break the game open. Leaving John Blackwell and Tonje with good looks. Head coach Kevin Young was visibly frustrated with the lack of attention on the defensive end.
After the under-eight media timeout, the Cougars’ defensive effort turned up a notch, and the miscues left. The Badgers would continue to fight to keep the game close, never letting the lead get up to more than 10.
Then, everything seemed to fall apart for BYU. Dawson Baker received a Flagrant 2 foul for intentional contact that caught everyone off guard.
“I'm going to need a pretty in-depth explanation of that one. So I can't comment on that,” Young said on Baker’s ejection.
Tonje was not done yet, as he willed the Badgers within two points. He scored 10 of Wisconsin’s final 13 points. On a night that he could not be stopped, Tonje went for 37 points on 10-of-18 shooting.
“Tonje is a really, really good ball player. (He) had a remarkable game,” Young said.
Wisconsin gave it all it had but came up short on the final possession to fall to BYU.
“Put the ball in my best player’s hands. We're not in this position without John Tonje,” Gard said on Wisconsin’s final play.
Saunders had an incredible game, leading the Cougars in scoring with 26 points and corralling six offensive rebounds.
“Saunders, you could tell he's a gamer,” Gard said. “He's a winner.”
For Saunders, he went through tough losses his freshman year in the West Coast Conference to now leading the Cougars to the Sweet 16.
“It's crazy just to think about how we've stuck together as a team,” Saunders said. “We just chose to keep moving forward.”
BYU will play the winner of Alabama and Saint Mary’s in Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday. The time has not been announced.
“This was super remarkable and just something that I'll remember forever,” Knell said.