Career performances push BYU basketball past Idaho Vandals

BYU basketball's strong second-half surges pushed the Cougars past the Idaho Vandals 95-71 Saturday afternoon at the Marriott Center to improve to 4-0 this season.

Idaho led BYU for most of the first half and was a thorn in BYU's side for most of the game. The Cougars came into the game as 28.5-point favorites, but the Vandals threatened them all game until Fousseyni Traore completely put them away.

Traore scored a career-high 29 points on 11 of 12 shooting and 7 of 7 from the free-throw line while adding eight rebounds. Twenty of those 29 points came in the second half and there was nothing Idaho could do to defend him.

"Tonight he had it going down low," said BYU head coach Kevin Young.

Richie Saunders was just as good. He scored a career-high 26 points on 10-15 shooting, hit 50% of his 3s, and recorded four steals and three blocks. Despite all the improvements Saunders has made on offense over his career, his defense remains the catalyst for himself and his team.

"That's honestly where I hang my hat," said Saunders, who has bought in completely on being the Cougars glue guy this season.

Egor Demin notched another good performance to add to his brilliant freshman campaign. He finished the game with 16 points and seven assists.

Against Idaho, the Cougars showed they have many ways to beat teams offensively. Against Queens, Trevin Knell and Dawson Baker led BYU in scoring. Demin is always a threat to have a big night when teams decide not to load up against him.

Kanon Catchings has struggled with his shot early this season but has unlimited scoring potential if he can find his shooting stroke. It will not always look the same night to night, but as long this team buys into playing the right way, it will continue to find success on the offensive end.

While BYU ultimately won by 24 points, the game was much closer than the score would indicate. The Cougars' problems against the Vandals were the same things that have hindered this team all season: free-throw and 3-point defense.

BYU was 25 of 45 from the free throw line on the season before Saturday afternoon. Against Idaho, BYU shot 19 of 30 from the free-throw line. In the first half, BYU was 6-16, which is one reason the game was so close early. The Cougars have struggled from the free throw line all season, which could cost them games against the upcoming stiffer competition.

The Cougars led by double digits for most of the last 10 minutes against the Vandals, so free throw shooting did not affect them late in this game, but it could be a potential kryptonite to BYU's ability to win close games this season. Besides the Cougars' poor free-throw shooting, what kept the Vandals in the game most was their 3-point shooting.

The Cougars' 3-point defense has been another concern over the early part of the season. Some of the open shots BYU is giving up are schematic, leaving poor 3-point shooters open. Those shooters have made BYU pay from behind the line this season.

At one point in the second half, Idaho was 9 of 13 from 3, with the majority of those shots being open looks. They finished the game 12 of 21 from 3, which is just too high of a percentage to be allowing teams to shoot.

The Cougars have shown glimpses of being an excellent defensive team with their length and athleticism. They are capable of forcing teams into poor shots and turnovers, but that has not happened consistently so far this season. The problem for BYU right now is that there are too many mental lapses when switching screens and rotating off dribble penetration.

BYU scheduled five tune-up games to start the season to work out the kinks before getting into the meat of the season. The Cougars have now exhausted four of those five games. They know what they must improve on to get to the next level.

BYU has a crucial opportunity over the next week-and-a-half that it cannot let squander away. The Cougars only play one game between now and Thanksgiving to improve their weaknesses before a challenging holiday schedule.

"There's a lot of stuff that's on the board for us that we want to get better at," said Young. "So we'll be pretty dialed in and calculated with what we spend our time on. I think just suring up our defense is the thing that's on my mind the most."