BYU falls 75-68 to No. 4 Arizona
Jackson has been covering sports for the Deseret News since 2023.
TUCSON, Ariz. — BYU’s hopes for an upset didn’t materialize.
The Cougars couldn’t topple a shorthanded Arizona squad, as the fourth-ranked Wildcats secured a 75-68 win Wednesday night at McKale Center in Tucson.
BYU moves to 19-7 on the season and 7-6 in Big 12 play.
3 takeaways
BYU let momentum slip away in the final minute of the first half. For the first 19 minutes, the Cougars battled the Wildcats and even led for nearly five minutes.
Two AJ Dybantsa free throws trimmed BYU’s deficit to one with 1:10 remaining in the half. Arizona guard Anthony Dell’Orso immediately answered with a 3-pointer, and a turnover by Keba Keita on the ensuing possession led to a fastbreak layup for Arizona.
Dybantsa added two more points from the charity stripe, only for Dell’Orso to beat the halftime horn with another triple to push Arizona’s lead to seven points.
BYU could have closed the half closer or even taken the lead, but instead found themselves down by more than two possessions at the break.
In the second half, BYU trimmed Arizona’s 16-point advantage to five within a four-minute stretch, but they couldn’t sustain the surge and ultimately fell by seven.
BYU’s 3-point shooting was a major factor. If the Cougars were to pull off the upset, they needed significant help from beyond the arc.
That help didn’t arrive.
BYU finished 5-of-19 from three-point range (26%), with all five makes coming from starters. The bench attempted just two threes all game.
Arizona, by contrast, knocked down nine triples at a 43% clip. They started 1-of-8 from three but finished strong, going 8-of-13 from beyond the arc in the final stretch.
The Cougars felt the absence of Richie Saunders. Dybantsa and Rob Wright III combined for 48 points, while the other eight BYU players who played contributed 20.
More worrying was BYU’s bench output: just six points across 55 total minutes.
Mihailo Boskovic, in Saunders’s spot, went 0-for-3 in 11 minutes and finished minus-6.
Aleksej Kostic went 1-for-3 with two turnovers, and Tyler Mrus missed his lone field-goal attempt.
Kennard Davis Jr. did post 10 points, two rebounds, and two steals, but all of those came after halftime.
