BYU defeated West Virginia 68-48 on March 11 in the second round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
The win advances BYU to the quarterfinals and highlights a strong defensive performance by the Cougars. The game was marked by Kennard Davis Jr.’s season-high 20 points, including five three-pointers and a dominant second half where he scored 17 points.
“Hard-fought game. West Virginia is a team that plays extremely hard,” BYU head coach Kevin Young said. “Well-coached team. Coach Hodge has done a great job being a first year coach in this league, this is a hard league. He’s done a great job in his first year.”
Young also praised his team’s effort and defense: “We just played them 10 days ago, and we felt like we left a lot to be desired in that game. I thought our guys came out with the 40-minute effort that had a will to win that was kind of unmatched,” Young said. “And I thought you saw it in a lot of different areas as far as the rebounding and how active our defense was. I thought our defense was tremendous tonight, arguably the best it’s been all year. So it was definitely something that we can look at moving forward as a benchmark for how good our defense can be.”
AJ Dybantsa contributed with 27 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and two steals for BYU, marking his 26th game this season scoring at least 20 points—a figure now fourth most in a single season for the program. Robert Wright III added 11 points and reached the milestone of 1,000 career points.
Dominique Diomande made an impact defensively with three steals during eight minutes of play in the first half, helping set up key fast-break opportunities for BYU.
BYU shot nearly 46 percent from the field overall while holding West Virginia to just over 38 percent shooting and forcing them into committing 22 turnovers leading to 17 Cougar points.
The Cougars will next face No.2-seeded Houston on Thursday, March 12 at T-Mobile Center.
