Absolutely nothing went right for BYU in its 83-64 loss at Providence on Tuesday night.
BYU was thoroughly outplayed for most of the game, and the Cougars' star freshman duo went quiet in their first road contest of the season.
Egor Demin and Kanon Catchings combined to score 9 points on 1 of 18 shooting from the field. Demin was especially cold and finished the game, scoring all six points at the free throw line.
Catchings hit a 3-pointer to score the first points of the game for BYU, and that was it. When the top two scoring options on any team do not show up, the game gets ugly, and if you are a BYU fan, this one was tough to watch.
The only bright spot for BYU was Dawson Baker's play. Down 49-34, Baker engineered his own 12-4 run to get the Cougars within seven, at 53-46, in the second half. But the Friars slammed the door shut and pulled away on a 13-3 run of their own.
Baker was the only guard who consistently got to the paint and finished at the basket despite his lack of size and athleticism. He finished the game 7 of 11 from the field and scored 16 points.
No other Cougar finished the game in double digits. Even Fousseyni Traore and Keba Keita struggled to finish at the basket. The big-man duo combined to score 17 points on 8 of 19 shooting from the field.
Tuesday's outcome was surprising, coming off of BYU's most connected game of the season against NC State. The Cougars' offensive struggles snowballed on the defensive end, allowing the Friars to shoot 60% from the field on the night.
So far this season, Providence was only shooting 33% from 3, but against BYU, they shot 12 of 22. The Friars returned star forward Bryce Hopkins made his return and led his team to a dominant win. His physicality was too much for BYU; he scored 16 points and shot 12 free throws. Jabri Abdur-Rahim led all scorers with 21 points off the bench and was a tough cover for the Cougars all night.
Even if BYU gets its usual scoring punch from its top two scorers, it would have been challenging to get the road win because of how poorly BYU played on the defensive end.
The combination of the Cougars' less-than-stellar defense and Providence's best shooting night of the season was the nail in the coffin for BYU. The Cougars have struggled on defense this season, and with less than a month until Big 12 play, they are running out of time to right the ship.
A poor offensive night was to be expected at some point for BYU, but this was as disjointed of a performance that Kevin Young's team has had all season. After the first 10 minutes of game action, the Cougars struggled to create open looks and finished the game with nine measly assists.
The good news for BYU, if there is any on a night where the Cougars get blown out of the building, is that they have over a week off until their next game against Fresno State to regroup and fix their issues.
The other is that most teams, especially young teams like BYU, often struggle in their first road tests. Catchings and Demin looked like deer in headlights against Providence, but it is the necessary growing pains this team has to go through to become a better team.