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BYU Cougars head coach Kevin Young talks with his players before an NCAA men’s basketball game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys held at the Marriott Center in Provo on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News
There are a couple of ways to look at previously slumping BYU’s 85-69 win over Oklahoma State — arguably the worst team in the Big 12 — on Tuesday night in front of 16,457 mostly satisfied fans at the Marriott Center.
In this league, a 16-point win over anybody — at home, on the road, or on Mars — is nothing to take for granted, even if you have lost three straight games and are wildly inconsistent at this point in the season.
So there’s that.
On the other hand, the way in which BYU (11-5, 2-3) won the game left a lot to be desired. That’s because the Cougars almost blew a 27-point first-half lead and had to keep their starters in the game much longer than coach Kevin Young wanted, what with the rivalry game with Utah coming up on Saturday in Salt Lake City.
Oklahoma State (9-7, 1-4), which was drubbed 83-62 at Utah last weekend, went on a 22-2 run in the second half to cut the huge deficit to 3, 51-48, with a little more than 13 minutes remaining.
It was looking like a meltdown for the ages for Young’s team, which had failed to execute down the stretch in losses to Texas Tech and TCU the last two times it played.
Dallin Hall had other ideas.
Having been relegated to coming off the bench a few games ago, the previous starter sandwiched a pair of huge 3-pointers around a Fousseyni Traore putback basket, and the Cougars were out of the woods.
Hall finished with a season-high tying 14 points on 4 of 4 shooting, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range.
Freshman Egor Demin also got going in the second half, finally making a 3-pointer (1 of 4) when it mattered and finishing with 10 points, eight assists and three rebounds in 27 minutes.
“I thought Dallin and Egor’s collective leadership as lead ball-handlers is the reason we won the game. I thought they…
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Author : Deseret News
Publish date : 2025-01-15 06:33:00
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