Texas skid-buster: No. 21 BYU eschews 3s in 84-72 win over Longhorns

PROVO — BYU didn't need a barrage of 3-point attempts to unhook Texas' two-game winning streak in Big 12 play.

Noah Waterman and Jaxson Robinson each scored 17 points, and Spencer Johnson added 11 points, eight rebounds and a pair of assists as No. 21 BYU snapped a two-game losing skid with an 84-72 win over Texas in front of an announced crowd of 17,978 fans in a Marriott Center matinee.

Don't boo the Cougars after Saturday afternoon, though; that's just the student section yelling "Foooooos."

Fousseyni Traore finished with 16 points and six rebounds off the bench, scoring in double figures for the first time since Nov. 18 against Morgan State as the 6-foot-6 junior continues to work back from a hamstring injury.

The hammie looked fine Saturday afternoon in front of a sold-out crowd and an ESPN2 audience.

But how the Cougars (15-5, 3-4 Big 12) snapped their two-game losing skid was almost as impressive as handing Texas a setback after back-to-back wins over No. 9 Baylor and No. 11 Oklahoma.

BYU didn't do it from the 3-point line.

The team that ranks second nationally, attempting 12.4 3-pointers per game, had a season-low 17 takes from distance and made seven of them. Part of that is a credit to Texas' defense, which did everything in its power to push the Cougars off the 3-point line — and did so arguably better than any team in BYU's first 20 games of the season.

"That's a credit to Texas. I mean, credit them," BYU coach Mark Pope said. "They had a game plan they were really committed to, and they said, 'We're not going to let you beat us the way that you want to beat us.' They did an incredible job. They were better than anybody else that we've faced so far in terms of being committed to that, and I was really proud of the way our guys responded."

The Longhorns rank 40th overall in KenPom and 225th nationally in 3-point field-goal defense, allowing 33.9% from deep. But against the bombs-away Cougars, that was a clear point of emphasis.

BYU kept the Longhorns off the glass 32-24 and scored 40 points in the paint and 29 off the bench to supplement an eight-man rotation en route to a 64% shooting percentage in the win.

"I think we went into the game knowing that we had to really protect from the perimeter," Texas coach Rodney Terry said. "Our goal was to try to make them take tough 2's, and take their 3's away. I thought we did a pretty good job at that, but at times, we got spread out a bit and they hurt us in the paint with their cuts and in their passing ability."

Richie Saunders added 11 points and three rebounds off the bench for BYU, and Aly Khalifa finished with a game-high eight assists.

Dylan Disu led Texas (14-6, 3-4 Big 12) with 19 points and seven rebounds, Max Abmas scored 12, and Tyrese Hunter had 10 points and six assists for the Longhorns.

After a slow start, Saunders connected on the Cougars' first 3-pointer of the game with 11:14 left in the half to briefly tie the game at 19-all. The Wasatch Academy product from Riverton then capped a 7-0 spurt two minutes later to lift BYU to its first lead of the game, 26-21.

Robinson and Waterman each had 9 points at the half as the Cougars lead by as many as 10 points, shooting 65% from the field with a 15-13 rebounding edge. But Disu poured in 11 points and five rebounds, and the Longhorns shot 5-of-9 from 3-point range to keep the game within striking distance at the break.

Boosted by a sold-out crowd and a packed student section that included a group on the front row told to change their T-shirts after spelling out "Horns Down" next to the Texas bench, the hosts didn't slow down.

Johnson capped a 10-0 run out of the break to take a 54-43 lead, finishing in transition from Dallin Hall less than four minutes into the second half. The Longhorns connected on just one of their first six 3-point attempts in the second half, and Traore pushed the lead to 63-52 with a dunk at the 11:34 mark.

BYU led by as much as 17 in the second half, and Texas was still down by double digits when Disu made 1-of-2 free throws with 2:34 left to pull the visitors within 10 points.

The 6-foot-6 big man from Bamako, Mali, scored 10 of his points on 4-of-5 shooting in the second half to go along with four rebounds, an assist and a crucial blocked shot as BYU held the Longhorns to 31 points on 10-of-28 shooting after the break.

"We need him. Obviously, it showed in this game, for sure," Robinson said of Traore. "We need him to be aggressive, and he looked just like that this game. He was making amazing passes out of the short roll, making sure he found that open teammate. He found Noah on the perimter and knocked down a few shots.

"We need him big-time, him and Aly and Atiki (Ally Atiki) and all of the bigs. We've got to make sure we've got a lot of different things we can do with our bigs, and we want to utilize their skills the best we can."

The Cougars closed it out from the free-throw line, making 13-of-15 free throws to make up for a 3:54 field-goal drought to end the game.

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