January 21, 2025; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Brigham Young Cougar’s head coach Kevin Young during the first half against Colorado Buffaloes at the CU Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images Richie Saunders scored 21 points to lead Byu to an impressive 80-52 victory over Cincinnati in Provo, Utah, on Saturday night.
Egor Demin added 15 points, seven assists and five returns when the hot cougars (13-6, 4-4 big 12) won for the third time in four matches.
Byu shot a fantastic 73.9 percent from the pitch in the second half to turn a five-point lead at halftime into a blowout gain while improving to 10-1 at home during the season.
Simas Lukosius gave 14 points, but he was the only Cincinnati player who scored two-digit goal when Bearcats (12-7, 2-6) lost a second straight match.
Cougars, who shot 57.1 percent in total for the match, made a season-best season with 15 3-points, a performance entitled to Saunders 5-for-7 view from depth. Demin and first -year student Kanon Catchings struck three threes.
Cincinnati, in the meantime, struggled to connect on his shots and hit only 37.7 percent of their attempts from the floor and 5 out of 28 of their attempts from outside the bow.
Demin opened the second half in the same way as he finished the first – by beating a rare three -point. After a Lukosius 3, Byu continued to mill, when Saunders beat two Treys during a 7-0 driving for a 38-26 lead.
Cougars followed the next Lukosius buck with another 7-0 spurt to go up with 17.
While BYU beat nine of its first 11 3-point attempts after half time, Bearcat made the opposite by only making 2 out of 11 shots from the depth to start the second half.
The team went back and forth during much of the first half, where Byu took a lead at half time with 28-23 after Demin beat two free throw and a 3-point in the last minute of the opening period. Cougars held the lead despite shooting 11-for-26 from the floor in the first half.
Dawson Baker contributed 11 points from the bench for Byu in the match.
Cougars exceeded Bearcats by 52-29 in the second half.
— Field Level Media
