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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — 3-Y-U, welcome to the City of Fountains.
Fousseyni Traore had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Trevin Knell added 12 points and five rebounds, and No. 20 BYU drained 14 3-pointers en route to an 87-73 win over UCF in the second round of the Big 12 men's basketball tournament Wednesday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
Dallin Hall supplied 13 points and four assists for BYU (23-9), and Richie Saunders added 13 points and four rebounds off the bench.
Darius Johnson led UCF with a game-high 32 points, including a flurry in the second half as the Knights rallied to come back from a deficit as large as 18 before the break.
Antwan Jones added 13 points and six rebounds for UCF (17-15), and Jaylin Sellers scored 12 for the Knights.
But the Cougars shot 47.2% from the field and 14-of-30 from the perimeter in the wire-to-wire win to advance to face fourth-seeded Texas Tech in Thursday's quarterfinals (10:30 a.m. MDT, ESPN2).
"I'm really proud of my team," Traore said after the game. "We actually played for each other, and we don't have any selfish guy. Richie?"
Added Saunders, his former teammate at Wasatch Academy: "Two halves of hard-fought basketball. That's all I've got to add."
Welcome to the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship @BYUMBB
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) March 13, 2024
The Cougs strike first courtesy of the deep ball from Aly Khalifa 🏹
📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/y7vWqSgI3O
Beyond 3-point shooting, the Cougars held UCF to 38.8% shooting, 28 points in the paint, and 9 points off 14 rebounds despite the Knights' 38-38 stalemate on the glass.
But if you ask BYU coach Mark Pope, the key to the win could be found in a different number: 13. The Cougars' first win over UCF came Jan. 13 in Orlando. They followed it up with a 90-88 win Feb. 13 over the Knights in Provo.
And then Wednesday's game was played March 13; how could BYU — which was picked 13th in the Big 12 preseason coaches poll — lose in the adopted hometown of pop star Taylor Swift, whose favorite number is 13?
"The deck was stacked against these guys; it's not even fair. Plus, we're in Kansas City," Pope said with a sly grin, alluding to the current girlfriend of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. "I mean, if I had told you guys that before the game, would you have thought this dude lost his mind or what? This UCF team is great, though. I'm excited to see what they do the rest of the way."
BYU started the game like the team that ranks second in the country in 3-point takes per game, knocking down four triples on 4-of-6 shooting to jump out to a 14-0 lead with a pair of 3-pointers by Aly Khalifa in less than four minutes.
The lead swelled to 21-3 after Jaxson Robinson hit his first three off the bench, and Traore followed with a strong finish at the rim as BYU shot 48% and held UCF to 36.1% shooting en route to a 47-38 halftime advantage.
"We had some good fortune and some good ball movements," Pope said. "The guys came out on attack from the beginning of the game, and played on their toes like we talk about every day."
Hall hit another 3-pointer out of the locker room, and Knell added another off a pass from Khalifa to push BYU's lead back to double digits just over a minute into the second half.
But the Knights didn't go away.
Johnson capped a 6-0 spurt with a fadeaway 3-pointer that cut UCF's deficit to just three, 59-56, with 13:37 remaining as the Knights emerged from the break hitting seven of their first 10 shots from the field.
But the Cougars got to the free-throw line before Noah Waterman ended a three-minute field-goal drought, and the 6-foot-11 stretch post found Saunders moments later for a triple that pushed BYU's lead back to 67-56 with 11:09 to go.
"Every second half, the focus is on winning this thing on the defensive end," Saunders said. "It was no different from this game. It just involved getting stops in transition and protecting the ball. Fouss did an incredible job. … He was a man with the ball, and so strong just like Fouss is."
Spencer Johnson had 9 points, seven assists and eight rebounds for BYU.
"They started off hot, really shot the three-ball well to start off in the first half, which is something they have done well all season," UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. "Very good basketball team. I think Mark has done a really good job with his group this year. And now for us, I think we got to be better in what we do on execution defensively. I thought we gave up too many threes and too many free throws, two areas we emphasized we wanted to contain."
