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CINCINNATI — In what came as absolutely no surprise to anybody who has been paying attention the past few weeks, once-ranked and mighty BYU was pulverized 90-68 by red-hot Cincinnati on Tuesday night in front of a sellout crowd of 12,012 at Fifth Third Arena.
That some people believed the Cougars, who have now lost three straight and nine of their last 13, were going to somehow flip a switch and revert to their winning ways seems quite laughable at this point. BYU’s hope for something beside a double-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament took another big hit, and another Quad 1 opportunity fell by the wayside.
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Actually, it fell as flat as the Cougars (8-9, 20-10), who inched even closer to having to play in a first-round game in next week’s Big 12 tournament.
And they should be hoping not to have to face the Bearcats (9-8, 17-13), who are playing with a sense of urgency and desperation that somehow has evaded BYU coach Kevin Young’s team the past month, with the exception of that upset of No. 6 Iowa State in the friendly confines of the Marriott Center.
A mark of a mediocre team, or worse, is that it cannot play as well on the road in the face of a raucous crowd as it can at home, and that certainly applies to BYU.
Hoping to make amends for that 79-71 loss at unranked West Virginia three days ago, the Cougars looked even more lost on defense, discombobulated on offense and as out of sorts as at any time this season on Tuesday.
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“Dug ourselves in a hole to start the game with just bad offense,” Young said. “They had 13 points off the turnovers in the first half, and that continued in the second.
“It was a 21-4 deficit for points off turnovers. Makes it tough to win. We were just careless with the ball.”
Meanwhile, homestanding Cincinnati played with fire and passion, beating BYU to 50-50 balls all night and taking advantage of all kinds of mismatches to win going away.
Sure, BYU superstar freshman AJ Dybantsa had a game-high 23 points, but he…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/analysis-backsliding-byu-hits-rock-062729378.html
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Publish date : 2026-03-04 06:27:00
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