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PROVO — Trevin Knell was lighting up the Marriott Center, scorching the nets, and seemed unstoppable en route to a career-high nine 3-pointers for 27 points.
The 12th-ranked Cougars needed every single one of them as they battled in its Big 12 opener — a taste of many, many battles to come in the top-rated college basketball conference in America — with an upstart Cincinnati side that rates among the best rebounding teams in the country, particularly on the defensive glass.
Then his momentum stopped. But the stoppage didn't come from a swat by 7-foot center Aziz Bandaogo or one of the Bearcats' three blocks.
It came from the bench.
Within the parameters of a regular rotation, Knell went to the bench in a 1-point game with 10:23 remaining. By the time the redshirt junior from Woods Cross returned with 4:33 remaining, the Cougars were down 61-53 — and all but out of the game, missing 14 of their final 17 shots in their first loss since Dec. 9 against Utah to fall to 12-2 and 0-1 in Big 12 play.
Knell was blistering hot from 3-point range before going to the bench for a breather. But after nearly six minutes out of the game, he returned to miss a pair of free throws, a jumper, and his final 3-point attempt with 44 seconds to go. He did have a rebound and an assist in the final 4:33 to finish with four and one, respectively, to go along with a steal.
After the 71-60 loss, BYU coach Mark Pope was asked about that lengthy absence of the game's leading scorer during that pivotal stretch
"Trev was playing such great basketball, on both ends of the floor. He was terrific," Pope said of Knell during a five-minute session with the media and six questions from a room full of reporters. "We're trying to keep fresh bodies out there the best we can, and maintain some matchup integrity with some of the matchups that we liked. But he was terrific; I thought (Knell) was fantastic."
The fifth-year head coach had a reason to be cautious about minutes. Knell played 29 minutes less than a year after missing the entire 2022-23 season with multiple shoulder injuries. The team was already injured, with limited minutes from Dawson Baker (foot) and Fousseyni Traore (hamstring), and 6-foot-11 center Aly Khalifa was "bedridden" with illness before Saturday night, Pope said.
None of those players were made available by BYU after the game, nor was Dallin Hall, the only other BYU player in double figures with 10 points — on 3-of-13 shooting that included a 2-of-12 mark from deep with three assists. Locker rooms are generally closed to the media during the regular season by the NCAA, and attempts to follow up with Pope were cut short by BYU media relations staff as the coach was shuffled between separate postgame interviews with radio, television and print reporters.
But the absence of the sharpshooter nicknamed "The Shot Doctor" was profoundly felt in much of those final minutes, when Cincinnati closed out a pivotal road win with a 24-9 finish in the final 12 minutes. While Knell finished 9-of-14 from 3-point range, the rest of his team was a combined 4-for-32 from deep.
That included a 1-for-5 finish from Jaxson Robinson, the Cougars' leading scorer prior to a mild ankle injury two weeks ago who finished with 5 points, two rebounds and an assist in 27 minutes.
"I think we're playing the best 3-point shooting team in the country, and he's the leading 3-point shooter," Cincinnati coach Wes Miller said. "You look at all of them and it was almost hilarious going through the scout; everybody's a great shooter. A couple of days ago we're looking at each other like, c'mon coach; everybody can't be like that.
"But Jaxson Robinson was the leading shooter, so you just wanted to take away the comfortable threes — and then he's got the ability to go do a little bit more. He's the guy that can put it down and make a play one-on-one. He's going to make some of those and have better nights. But I was proud of the way our guys made an effort, and that (Robinson) didn't have a better night shooting the ball."
Six of those points down the stretch came from the free-throw line, where the Bearcats were 19-of-24 to just 5-of-10 for the hometown Cougars. Cincinnati (12-2, 1-0 Big 12) was less reliant on the three, scoring 30 of their 71 points in the paint and shooting 43% from the field to the Cougars' 33% — with just 6-of-15 3-point makes.
"That last 10 minutes felt the same; the game really slowed down on their end and it became a bit of an isolation feel — very slow, high-ball screen, paced game," Pope said. "They made some plays, and they were really effective at getting to the free-throw line. All of that made the game feel slower, and I think our guys probably started pressing a little bit and started becoming a little bit more stagnant and accepting uncharacteristic plays out of ourselves instead of really working and getting a little deeper into the possession."
