BYU basketball secures back-to-back ranked wins in February
BYU’s Richie Saunders drilled two clutch free throws in the final moments of a 95-94 thriller in Tucson.
As Trey Stewart denied any chance for Caleb Love to take the final shot of the game, the absence of timeouts forced Arizona to toss a wild pass into the opposite half of the floor. The ball sailed clear of its intended target and into the hands of an awaiting Cougar.
The ball was caught and tossed high into the air as time expired. For the second straight time, BYU basketball snagged a win over a ranked opponent — the first time such a feat had been accomplished at BYU since 1988.
I’ve literally never seen anything like it in my lifetime.
After a record-shattering 34-point win over the Kansas Jayhawks, Kevin Young’s BYU basketball squad marched down to Arizona to finalize some unfinished business against a Wildcats team who had won convincingly in Provo a few weeks earlier.
In a game that saw both teams inflate their score well into the 90s, BYU basketball scored the highest sum in the McKale Center by a road team since… Jimmer and the Cougars won in Tucson. Apparently, this is just a thing that happens for this basketball program.
But a win of this magnitude indicates a major point for Kevin Young and his staff. For the first time this season, the Cougars look like an unstoppable force in their conference. Winning big over Kansas State after a road win against West Virginia was a great step in the right direction, but suddenly this is a side that has taken down two of the strongest squads in the entire Big 12 conference.
That’s no small accomplishment and a perfect indication that Kevin Young’s team is finally putting the pieces together under his system. Touted as one of the best offensive minds in basketball, Young’s offense just produced a 95-point offensive explosion to keep pace with a dynamic Arizona side.
Losses to Providence, TCU, and Utah are now only memories. This is a different team than we saw months ago — a team capable and ready to make a run in March.
