BOULDER, Colorado — If BYU basketball coach Kevin Young can somehow bottle the way his team played in the second half Tuesday against Colorado, the Cougars might have something to build on as they play the final two-thirds of their second season in the Big 12.
Still stinging from that heartbreaking loss at rival Utah, BYU broke out of a first half rock fight with the Buffs with some of their best play of the entire season the first 10 minutes of the second half and rolled to an 83-67 win in front of 6,166 fans who braved windy, frigid conditions and a 9 p.m. tipoff time to watch it at CU Events Center.
"I would put it up there maybe as high as it goes (in ranking how good it was)," Young said of the absolute blitz the Cougars (12-6, 3-4) put on the reeling Buffaloes (9-9, 0-7) in the second half. I thought we were clicking on all cylinders, with phenomenal execution.
"It was really two-fold," he continued. "One, we were getting stops. We were holding them to one shot. We were getting out in transition, and then these guys were executing like crazy on offense."
And making shots.
Oh, were they making shots.
Making his third straight start, Mawot Mag got them rolling with a slashing drive. Then Richie Saunders hit a 3, and Trevin Knell followed with back-to-back triples. Mag and Saunders added more buckets, Keba Keita dunked home a lob from Knell, and then Knell made another 3-pointer.
Not to be outdone, freshman point guard Egor Demin assisted on four straight field goals, including a nifty behind-and-between-his-legs pass to Saunders for a triple, then made a driving layup himself.
"I am so glad I hit that, man," said Saunders in the postgame news conference when Demin was asked about the play.
Saunders finished with a game-high 25 points on 10 of 15 shooting, causing Colorado coach Tad Boyle to say, "I think Richie Saunders is an all-league player."
Demin's layup completed a 23-2 run to start the second half, and a 39-6 run from the time CU took a 32-22 lead in the first half.
For the couple of thousand BYU fans in attendance, it was breathtaking, and sort of what folks have been expecting of this talented, yet wildly inconsistent team. Granted, Colorado is arguably the worst team in the Big 12, and still hasn't gotten a conference win since moving over from the Pac-12, but to do what BYU did on another team's home court was impressive nevertheless.
"We didn't come out in the second half ready to play, and BYU did. When a team shoots 68 percent in the second half in your building, something is wrong," Boyle said.
With nearly every Cougar contributing, including seldom-used big man Mihailo Boskovic and backup freshman point guard Elijah Crawford, it was as complete of a performance away from the Marriott Center as BYU has had this season.
"The guys were screening for each other and passing the ball around well," Young said. "It was fun."
Sure, the Cougars still foul too much — at halftime five different guys had two fouls apiece — but the defensive effort after the first 10 minutes was also worth remembering. Colorado made 9 of its first 12 shots, then reverted back to its familiar form and finished shooting 46% from the floor, 37% from 3-point range.
"At halftime, I felt like we should have been up 10," Boyle said.
Speaking of which, it was rather chippy early, especially for two teams that hadn't faced each other since 2016.
Saunders had an easy explanation for that.
"Both teams have been in similar situations this season, just coming up short in some games. Like, they have had a lot of close games, too," said Saunders, who added five rebounds and an assist. "I think when you get to that point, it means so much, and you are just trying to figure it out. … I think it was because both teams are trying to turn their seasons around."
This might have done the trick for BYU, although after hosting Cincinnati on Saturday and Baylor on Tuesday, they have a tough one at much-improved UCF. If nothing else, they got the much-hyped Demin going, as the Russian teenager finished with eight points, seven assists and two rebounds on 4 of 7 shooting.
"We talk about helping each other and playing for the guy next to you. For me, it is a blessing to have teammates like that who know where to be when they blitz me or when I am in a hard situation," Demin said. "I know I can pass the ball and they can score it. I can be confident in them."
The Cougars got off to an OK start and even had leads of 14-11, 17-13 and 22-18 in the first 10 minutes despite some less-than-stellar shot selection and Colorado having come out on fire.
Just as the wheels were starting to come off, Saunders rescued the Cougars with a personal 7-0 run, and Mag added a 3-point play.
The action got so chippy that even the head coaches, Young and Boyle, exchanged words after BYU freshman Kanon Catchings was whistled for a foul. A courtside observer who didn't want to be identified said Boyle yelled something about playing dirty in the direction of Catchings, and Young took issue with it.
Asked after the game about that incident, Young downplayed it.
"It was all good. It was a class act by (Boyle). He was fine," Young said. "It was just really a non-issue, honestly. He is a good dude and there is no bad blood."
Saunders had 14 of his 25 in the first half, and Dawson Baker made two big 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes off the bench and finished with nine points.
BYU kept up its intensity in the second half; Colorado did not.
"I'm going to throw my halftime speech in the toilet," Boyle said.
Meanwhile, BYU will put its second-half performance on its season-ending highlight reels.
"These guys got it done. My message was we gotta go take it. We have been in that situation a lot this year. We are a battle-tested team," Young said. "We have had a lot of close games, which I think will help us as the season progresses. But I thought what really set the tone was the practice we had yesterday. These guys came in and were super dialed in. I referenced that (practice) at halftime and they came out and took it."
