Unlikely contributors give BYU the edge over West Virginia

In college basketball, life on the bubble is stressful.

Every game, every minute and every possession feels like life or death. It does not matter how you win or who won the game for you; winning is all that matters. Against West Virginia on Tuesday night, the Cougars needed contributions from just about everyone on its roster to grind out a hard-fought 73-69 victory on the road in Morgantown.

The Cougars started the game cold, missing their first five shots before Egor Demin finally got his first layup to fall after missing his first two shots. Demin and BYU, once again, turned the ball over multiple times in the first five minutes of action, leading to easy West Virginia baskets on the other end. Toby Akani was the main recipient off these turnovers and scored a quick 9 points to give the Mountaineers a 14-7 advantage with 14:30 left in the first half.

After Demin's second turnover, BYU coach Kevin Young turned to backup point guard Dallin Hall to come in and give the Cougars some momentum. Hall came right in and banged back-to-back 3-point field goals to give BYU a one-point lead at 15-14.

From there, neither team led by more than one possession for the rest of the half. Kanon Catchings helped the Cougars stay in the game as he was fouled on two 3-point attempts, cashed in 5 of 6 of his free throws and hit another 3 to lead BYU with 8 points in the first half. The Cougars' bench outscored the Mountaineers 21-8 in the first half and 38-18 for the whole game. BYU's bench kept it in the game despite slow starts from Demin and Richie Saunders.

Both offenses struggled to shoot the ball even though both teams had quality looks. BYU and West Virginia each shot under 40% from the field and the Cougars were only 10 of 28. Despite such a poor shooting half, BYU led 32-31 after Trey Stewart hit a deep 3 at the end of the shot clock with under a minute remaining. But the Cougars full court pressed at the end of the half and gave up a wide-open 3 to Powell to trail 34-32 at the break.

The Mountaineers kept that momentum going in the second half as they spurted out to a 42-36 after another wide-open Powell 3-point shot went down. The Cougars were battling to keep the game close as Saunders and Demin started to find success on offense, driving to the basket at will. The problem was every time BYU cut West Virginia's deficit to within a possession, they could not get any stops.

Down 52-46, the Mountaineers were gaining steam again before Stewart checked into the game and scored on a baseline out of bounds (BLOB) on a backdoor cut. On the next play, he buried a wide-open triple from the corner to cut West Virginia's lead down to one.

But despite BYU's best efforts they could not get the stop and score they needed to finally take the lead. The Mountaineers were carving up BYU's zone defense and were attacking backup center Fousseyni Traore in many of their actions. Up 58-56, West Virginia forward Amani Hansberry scored on back-to-back possessions to extend the lead back to six at 62-56, forcing Young to call a timeout with 6:25 left in the second half.

The next 6:25 of gameplay was one of the most important stretches of the season for the Cougars. Losers of two in a row, with upcoming games against a red-hot Kansas State team, No. 17 Kansas and a road game at No. 13 Arizona, BYU's backs were against the wall.

So the Cougars went small with Mihailo Boskovic at center. Allowing Demin to get into takeover mode. The last five halves of basketball for Demin had been some of his worst this season, but in the second half, and to close out the game, Demin was incredible. Out of the timeout, he drove to the basket and made an off-balance bank shot for the and-1 to cut the deficit to three.

Then Mawot Mag made two incredible defensive plays, stealing a pass in the backcourt, leading to two foul shots for Saunders, and drawing an offensive foul on the Big 12's leading scorer Javon Small off the ball. On the next offensive possession down, Saunders drove into the paint, causing multiple West Virginia defenders to crash, leaving Boskovic all alone to bury a 3. At last, BYU had taken the lead 63-62 in the blink of an eye.

It was not over yet. The Mountaineers made plays, but Demin was better. BYU ran a beautiful set play to get him a layup at the basket. Then Demin hit an incredible last-second shot clock 3 to give BYU a 68-65 lead with under four minutes remaining.

The Mountaineers would not go away and answered with a quick 4-0 run of their own. The Cougars played incredible defense, switching one through five, but gave up two offensive rebound putbacks. The Mountaineers had a 69-68 lead with 2:13 to play, but Demin kept making plays.

Not often does Demin make the game-changing defensive play, but against the Mountaineers, he did it. With Mawot Mag pressuring the ball, Demin stripped Small with less than a second on the shot clock and was off to the races. That is, until Okani reached out and grabbed Demin from behind to stop the fastbreak. After a lengthy review upheld the common foul call, he stepped to the line and calmly swished both free throws to give BYU a one-point lead, 70-69.

On the ensuing possession, Joseph Yesufu got a clean look at a 3 for West Virginia but it rimmed out. BYU had a chance to seal it, and Young called a timeout to draw up a sideline out-of-bounds play for Demin. After a Saunders dribble handoff, Demin came off a Boskovic screen.

When Boskovic's man went with the ball handler, Demin got it back to Boskovic who drove down the lane and finished at the rim for the and-1. He drilled the free throw to give BYU a four point lead and seal the game. The Cougars, after trailing for most of the game, won 73-69.

The Cougars needed contributions from everyone, and they got them. Demin led BYU with 16 points, scoring 14 in the second half. Catchings finished with 11 points, Saunders had 9 points, Stewart scored 8, Traore scored 7, and Boskovic had the 6 biggest points of the night.

Twelve players saw the court for BYU and needed all 12 to pull out a gutsy win on the road. The Mountaineers were led by Okani who scored 16 points, Powell and Yesufu added in 11 and Small was held to 9 points but had nine assists.

After turning the ball over 10 times in the first half, BYU only turned it over twice in the second half and outrebounded West Virginia by 10.

The Cougars did just enough to survive keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive.