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PROVO — To paraphrase Michael Scott quoting Wayne Gretzky, Spencer Johnson only missed 100% of the shots he didn't take Monday night.
Johnson scored 11 points to go along with eight rebounds, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 11 seconds left, to help BYU survive its season opener with a 60-56 win over Idaho State in front of 13,972 fans at the Marriott Center.
Fousseyni Traore added 15 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and a block to lead the Cougars (1-0), who assisted on just nine of 22 made baskets. It's the 10th double-double of Traore's BYU career.
In a game where BYU shot just 3-of-16 from 3-point range and committed 23 of the 44 turnovers, the Cougars tied the game at 55-all on a pair of free throws from Traore with 26.6 seconds left in regulation.
Johnson hit BYU's third 3-pointer of the game with 11.2 seconds left, a hesitation trey to give the Cougars a rare lead of the second half and help set up Johnson's second-half heroics.
Gideon George added 10 points, eight rebounds and two steals for BYU (1-0), including a swat at the Bengals' potential game-tying jumper in the final seconds that Johnson corralled into a rebound and free throws. Traore and Dallin Hall dished out seven of the Cougars' nine assists for a team that scored 23 points on 21 turnovers.
in case you missed it…@spoonce32 👀 pic.twitter.com/rVR4w80aRJ
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) November 8, 2022
"It wasn't easy out there," said Traore, the only BYU player selected to the All-WCC preseason first team. "Tonight was crazy. But like coach says, you've got to find a way to win.
"I think the biggest thing about this team is we're super supportive, and we want each other to play."
Brock Mackenzie had 15 points, including three 3-pointers, to lead Idaho State; and Miguel Tomley added 10 points. The Bengals shot 40% from the field, including 8-of-25 from beyond the arc, to lead for around 15 minutes of the second half.
Picked to finish 12th in the Big Sky after an offseason that saw seven transfers (including former BYU big man Kolby Lee), the Bengals (0-1) nearly toppled the Cougars for the first time since 1977 — and the first time in Provo since 1939 — with a barrage of 3-point shooting and a switch defense that forced 22 turnovers of its own.
The Cougars gave some help, too, assisting on just nine of 22 made baskets, with seven of them coming from Traore and freshman Dallin Hall.
"We struggled offensively the whole night, and most of that is on me. But Dallin had a pace about him that was helping us feel like we were in familiar spaces," said BYU coach Mark Pope of Hall, who played for starter Rudi Williams for most of the final seven minutes and finished with 4 points and four assists. "He was feeling good, and we ran with him down the stretch. We've got a lot of confidence with everyone on this roster."
In his first start in over 900 days, since his time at Salt Lake Community College that followed brief stints at Weber State and Utah Valley (official starts, that is), Johnson refused to let BYU lose. The play that won it should've gone inside to Traore or find a backdoor cut, but when ISU cut that off, the 6-foot-5 junior from American Fork took matters into his own hands.
"I came back to get it, and I was like, 'Look, I haven't shot a 3 all game,'" Johnson told BYUtv. "I had been working super hard, and I know when I shoot it, I'm going to make it. I was just fortunate to go in.
"I'm super proud of my guys. We weren't going to say die; we weren't going to give up, we weren't going to lose, and we just hung in there and got the win."
No better teammate, either, Traore added.
"It was just crazy," he said. "We needed it. We could see everybody needed it, and he was willing to take it and make us win.
"That was one of the best things ever."
Idaho State took its first lead on Mackenzie's fastbreak bucket with 5:24 left in the half, a run that started on the Cougars' ninth turnover of the first half. Williams re-established the lead just 33 seconds later with a pair of technical free throws, but BYU limped to a 27-22 first-half lead with back-to-back buckets by Jaxson Robinson and holding the Bengals to 35% shooting with 14 turnovers.
The Cougars shot 40% from the field in the first half, but just 1-of-6 from 3-point range with 11 turnovers, unable to pull away despite 22 points in the paint, 19 points off turnovers and a bench that scored just 4 points.
Idaho State opened the second half on a 13-5 run, including an 11-1 spurt capped by Brock Mackenzie's 3-pointer to give the Bengals a 35-32 edge five minutes into the half. The Bengals connected on four of their first six 3-pointers of the second half, and 7-of-11 shots overall immediately following the break.
BYU went on a mini-run during Idaho State's own scoreless spell of its own, five-straight misses that the Cougars converted into a 47-45 deficit on Traore's 3-point play with just over seven minutes remaining.
Traore tied the game at 53-53 with 59 seconds left.
Never in doubt, the 6-foot-6 sophomore from Bamako, Mali said.
"I think that we struggled a lot today. But I feel like we always pull it out," said Traore, who prepped at Wasatch Academy. "Just keep going. And I think Gideon helps that a lot. He's a great leader."
Next up, BYU travels to Southern California on Friday to face old Mountain West rival and 19th-ranked San Diego State. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. MT on the Mountain West Network.
