Wright guides No. 10 BYU past Pacific for 7th straight win

PROVO — When Pacific's second-half rally pulled BYU's latest visitor to the Marriott Center within single digits Tuesday night, head coach Kevin Young looked right at point guard Robert Wright III when he called the team together and chastised the team for not playing with "flow and pace."

Message received.

Wright scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half to go along with five rebounds, four assists and five steals; and Richie Saunders scored 24 as the 10th-ranked Cougars improved to 10-1 with a 93-57 win over Pacific.

AJ Dybantsa added 23 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two steals for BYU, the first double-double of the five-star freshman's collegiate career.

Dybantsa's fourth consecutive 20-point game is the first by a BYU player since Tyler Haws in 2015. It's the first time in 15 seasons that BYU has had three players score 20 points or more in a single game.

Tyler Mrus added a season-high 15 points for the Cougars, who converted 18 turnovers into 25 points and scored 26 points in transition — especially when 39-7 that turned a 10-point advantage in the second half into a runaway win.

"We were just trying to be the aggressors, get stops, and get out in transition. We wanted to score some easy ones," said Wright, who had five of the Cougars' 13 steals. "I feel like we did that, and that opened the game back up."

Elias Ralph had 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists to lead Pacific (8-4).

BYU didn't start as fast as Saturday's 100-53 win over UC Riverside, but the Cougars held Pacific without a field goal until Justin Rochelin finished one off the glass with 14:10 left in the half.

Mrus dropped in a pair of 3-pointers for the first time since Nov. 21 against then-No. 23 Wisconsin at the Delta Center, including one during a 12-2 run that helped stretched the Cougars' lead to 28-10 with 4:54 left in the half.

Saunders and Dybantsa were just getting warmed up.

The duo combined for 25 points, eight rebounds, five assists and seven steals, and BYU held the Tigers to 33.3% shooting including 0-for-11 from beyond the arc to take a 41-20 halftime lead.

"Coach has been in my head that I should be averaging around 10 rebounds with my athleticism," Dybantsa said. "I'm just trying to be more active on the boards."

It also helped BYU get out and run, fueling that fast-break attack while out-rebounding the Tigers 42-32 including 13 offensive rebounds with transition threes, layups and rim-rattling dunks.

"Our defense was phenomenal during that stretch, and we started making a couple of opens threes," Young said. "Rob got hit in the mouth or whatever, and it kind of woke him up to go on that flurry. And then we found shot-making. ... But I think it was all really fueled by our defense, which was really good."

Pacific averaged .340 through the first 11 games from 3-point range, but went scoreless from beyond the arc while BYU outscored the Tigers 19-2 in transition with 17 points off 12 turnovers and a 25-18 rebounding advantage.

Isaac Jack capped a 12-0 run to cut Pacific's deficit to single digits, 47-38 six minutes into the second half. But Wright, Saunders and a corner three from Dybantsa pushed the lead back to double digits with an 15-2 run two minutes later.

Mrus made it 18-2 with his third 3-pointer, and Wright stretched the lead to a game-high 30 with a 3-pointer with 7:55 remaining.

BYU hosts Abilene Christian at 7:30 p.m. MST Friday before wrapping up nonconference play next Monday, Dec. 22 against Eastern Washington.

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