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PROVO — When Jaxson Robinson was forced to the locker room with an apparent ankle injury Saturday night, the Cougars' high-scoring sixth man left a significant hole in the lineup.
Richie Saunders was more than happy to fill it.
The former Wasatch Academy standout came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points with six rebounds on 56% shooting as the No. 18 Cougars cruised to their second straight win, an 86-54 victory over Georgia State in front of an announced crowd of 13,819 at the Marriott Center.
Trevin Knell added 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including his 17th game with at least three 3-pointers, and Noah Waterman supplied 13 points and six rebounds.
"Of course, it's hard losing Jax," Saunders told BYUtv. "But I felt like we just needed to stick together as a team; and clearly, it broke open until somebody else stepped up."
Dallin Hall had 12 points, six assists and four rebounds, and Spencer Johnson had a team-high seven assists for the Cougars (10-1), who shot 42% from 3-point range against a team ranked No. 19 nationally in 3-point percentage defense while tying for the best 11-game start in program history since the 1987-88 team that started 17-0.
Kudos to the program depth, including nine guys who have gone for career-highs of 20 points or more.
"We have nine guys who are capable of putting two dimes down; that's pretty great," BYU coach Mark Pope said. "You talk about depth and how important it is; depth is required if you're going to be a high-level basketball team. We have Aly and Fouss and Atiki — three big-time fives — and then we come into a game where we lose Jax as we're trying to break in Dawson for a bit. Every single guy on this time. ... We need every single one of them. That's what is going to help us get through this gauntlet that we're about to enter."
BYU vs Georgia State | Game Highlights pic.twitter.com/BNLGvC5H3E
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) December 17, 2023
Lucas Taylor had 10 points and three assists for Georgia State, and Dwon Odom added 12 points, eight rebounds and three assists for the Panthers (4-6).
But BYU outrebounded the visitors 40-35, assisted on 23-of-32 made field goals, and committed just four turnovers — including a four-assist, zero-turnover night from center Aly Khalifa to clinch the win.
"It was a real Achilles' for us last year, understandably with our youth on the floor," Pope said of the turnovers. "But it matters now to them, not just me talking to them. To play this Georgia State team with the nature of the game that it was tonight, and to be able to have a four-turnover game is a significant accomplishment. I know they'll be proud of themselves, and they should be. It's pretty remarkable."
In the end, the Cougars did what a team ranked No. 3 in the NET ratings should do to a team ranked No. 189 in its fifth road game in six outings.
BYU started hot, connecting on back-to-back-to-back triples en route to an 11-2 run less than five minutes into the game.
Saunders poured in 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including a pair of 3s, and BYU led by as much as 14 en route to a 39-26 halftime advantage.
The Panthers outrebounded the Cougars 19-17 and nearly matched BYU's 14 makes with 12.
But the Cougars shot 9-of-21 from 3-point range, including 3-of-6 for 9 points to go along with three rebounds and two assists from Hall, and ended the half on an 8-0 run for the lead.
"We had a lot of fun just being us tonight," Hall said.
BYU held the Panthers to just two field goals in the first five minutes of the second half, pulling away for good as Waterman and Johnson combined for 11 points during a 14-2 run with 15:48 to go as the hosts never looked back.
Checking in
Dawson Baker made his BYU debut Saturday night, checking in with 4:54 left in the first half. The former UC Irvine scoring wing finished with 6 points on 3-of-5 shooting, a rebound and an assist in nine minutes, while spending extended bouts of the second half riding a stationary bike.
Marcus Adams Jr., the four-star freshman who transferred to BYU from Gonzaga and Kansas, did not debut a day after the NCAA and a coalition of six states' attorneys general agreed to extend a restraining order barring the association from enforcing rules restricting multiple-time transfers nationally.
"Marcus has been out since June, and he's been in practice live for the last two days, but with a much longer break away than Dawson," Pope said. "We kind of felt like we should give him one more week to incorporate himself, and made the decision before the game to hold on for another week."
Twisted
Robinson, who leads the Cougars with 18.0 points per game, played just seven minutes in the first half before exiting with an apparent ankle injury. The senior from Ada, Oklahoma, did not play in the second half, finishing with 2 points on 1-of-3 shooting with two rebounds.
Pope called the injury a "light ankle sprain" and doesn't anticipate a lengthy recovery, perhaps as soon as Friday.
"But we'll nurse it and we'll see," he added.
Next up
BYU hosts Bellarmine Friday at 7 p.m. MST on ESPN+.
