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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For a team that some have described as living and dying by the three, BYU men's basketball has done a remarkable job of doing the other things well.
The Cougars have been a top-two team nationally in 3-point shooting all year, but also ranked first in the Big 12 and seventh nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.75), third nationally in assists per game (18.7), sixth in bench points per game (32.9), and 23rd in rebounding margin (6.7).
In Thursday's 81-67 loss to No. 25 Texas Tech in a Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal, BYU (23-10) didn't do much of any of that. While blaming the Cougars' first-half shooting percentage of 21.2%, or a 7-of-35 conversion clip from the perimeter, is an easy win-loss decider, BYU's problems extended well beyond the 3-point arc.
The Red Raiders (23-9) outrebounded the Cougars 42-34, holding the lower-seeded team in a visiting uniform at the T-Mobile Center to 7 points off 10 offensive rebounds and forced six steals for 10 turnovers in the 13-point win.
Jaxson Robinson led BYU in scoring with 18 points, and Spencer Johnson was the Cougars' top rebounder with seven. And the 6-foot-5 wing guard from American Fork recognizes that rebounding is everyone's responsibility.
"I think a lot of us got caught ball watching," Johnson said. "We would watch the shot go up and we wouldn't hit our guy and they would come in and hit us first and that really burned us, man. That's something we can learn. We got to set the tone by hitting our guy and keeping them off the glass."
Beyond Johnson and Robinson (five rebounds), BYU's top board-getters were Richie Saunders (six) and Noah Waterman (five). While Fousseyni Traore's penchant for rebounding has been well-documented, BYU's strength on the glass has been a team game — and they need to get back to it if they want to win next week when it matters most, in the NCAA Tournament.
"One through five, every guy's got to be engaged," said Dallin Hall, the point guard who had 2 points, two rebounds and a game-high seven assists Thursday. "Myself as a leader in the point guard position, I've got to help set that tone and be that example. Everybody's got to get a hit and box guys out. Then we're going to be able to play on offense."
Pop Isaacs had 22 points, and Chance McMillian added 17 points and six rebounds as Texas Tech stunned the Cougars with a 12-2 start that ballooned to a 23-point lead en route to its 14-point win. A day earlier, BYU was the aggressor against UCF.
But the roles were reversed against the No. 4 seeds.
"We've definitely got to just come out and hit teams first," said Waterman, who also had 8 points and a block. "We didn't do that. They got up big and then it was hard to come back. So we've just got to hit first and come out with energy; the first four minutes of a basketball game are really important. It really sets the tone for everything else. We're a really special team, but that's something we're going to take back, look at film, box out better and then move on to the Big Dance."
The Cougars will learn their postseason destination Sunday at 4 p.m. MDT on CBS.
Notes
- Robinson extended his streak of games with at least one 3-pointer to 20 with his first triple in the first half.
- With his game-high seven assists, Hall dished out more than 160 dimes in his sophomore season. He's one of seven players in BYU history with at least 160 assists in a single season.
- Aly Khalifa left the game at halftime with an ankle and did not return. The 6-foot-11 center finished with 3 points on 1-of-4 shooting with two rebounds and an assist in eight minutes before cheering on his team with the bench in the second half.
- With the victory, Texas Tech tied the all-time series with BYU with the win at three wins apiece.
- The Cougars fell to 4-4 against Associated Press Top 25 opponents this season with the loss that snapped a two-game winning streak against such competition.
