KANSAS CITY, Mo. — BYU superstar freshman AJ Dybantsa showed out for the third time in three days in Thursday's Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals.
Houston has one of those, too, though.
Kingston Flemings had 17 points, four rebounds and three assists; and Joseph Tugler added 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists as second-seeded Houston upended 10th-seeded BYU 73-66 at the T-Mobile Center on the banks of the Missouri river.
Emanuel Sharp added 13 points and four rebounds for Houston (26-6), which eliminated BYU from the conference tournament for the second straight year.
Dybantsa poured in 26 points, five rebounds and two assists to lead BYU (23-11); and teammate Robert Wright III added 15 points and four assists.
Keba Keita pulled down 11 rebounds to go with 8 points in the paint, and Aleksej Kostic added three 3-pointers for 9 points, including a triple to cut a 9-point second-half deficit to just 64-61 with 1:59 remaining.
But Flemings responded with a 3 of his own just 32 seconds later, and Houston closed out its fifth win over BYU since the two joined the Big 12 Conference in 2023.
Dybantsa (16) and Wright (12) combined to score 28 of BYU's 41 points in the first half. But it was "the other guys" who helped pull the 10th-seeded Cougars in front down the stretch.
Houston opened the contest hitting 7-of-11 from the field, and held BYU to just 1-of-7 shooting. Chris Cenac Jr. had 8 points and three rebounds, and Houston outscored with 18 first-half points in the paint to 12.
AJ DYBANTSA, OMG‼️ pic.twitter.com/QSsbhxVzsG
— ESPN (@espn) March 12, 2026
But BYU flipped the script in the back half of the first, holding Houston to 7-of-18 and ending the half with three straight makes while converting 12-of-13 free throws.
Kostic drained back-to-back 3-pointers to cap a 9-2 spurt — one led by Keita's block against All-Big 12 freshman Flemings — en route to a 41-37 lead at the break.
Flemings wasn't done.
The freshman scored 5 points as Houston opened the second half on a 10-5 spurt, including a triple less than five minutes in to retake the lead 47-46.
Houston stretched the advantage to four by holding BYU without a field goal for more than three minutes, and Cenac gave Houston a 59-55 lead with 7:42 left to play.
Flemings picked up his fourth foul a minute later, but BYU couldn't capitalize. Houston held its opponent to just 6-of-21 from the field in the second half, including 1-of-5 from 3-point range that included a miss by Davis before Chase McCarty immediately drilled a three on the other end and moved back up 64-58 with 3:14 to go.
This story will be updated.
