How Houston basketball beat BYU despite unstoppable AJ Dybantsa

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Houston basketball has established itself as a college basketball power in recent years, and Kelvin Sampson and company are proving it once again in 2025-26. The Cougars sit near the top of the Big 12 again with a little less than a month to go in the regular season, cementing their spot as an elite team with a very impressive 77-66 win over BYU on the road.

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On BYU’s side, the loss wasn’t the fault of star freshman AJ Dybantsa. The potential No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft hit tough shot after tough shot against Houston’s vaunted defense, finishing with 28 points on an efficient 9-for-14 shooting. He knocked down three of his four 3-pointers and finished 7-for-12 at the free throw line.

Despite the BYU star getting his game off, Sampson wasn’t all that upset with how his team defended the former five-star recruit.

“The Dybantsa kid is special. You’re not going to stop him,” Sampson said, via Jackson Payne of Yahoo! Sports. I mean, that question should never be asked of any coach, ‘How do you stop him?’ I don’t know how. We just made him earn the shots he got, and he made some tough ones.”

While Dybantsa had his way with the Houston defense, the rest of BYU’s regular contributors were relatively quiet. Point guard Rob Wright III was able to manufacture 17 points on a very good shooting night, but star forward Richie Saunders finished with just seven points on 1-for-8 shooting.

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Saunders came into the game as BYU’s second-leading scorer with 19 points per game, so there’s no question Houston brought some of its best stuff to slow him down.

“I thought we did an awesome job on Saunders,” Sampson said. ” … We didn’t want Saunders getting to the rim. We didn’t want him getting to the free throw line. We loaded and took away his driving lanes pretty good.”

This win…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/houston-basketball-beat-byu-despite-162343166.html

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Publish date : 2026-02-08 16:23:00

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