DENVER — Richie Saunders scored 16 points, Egor Demin added 15 points and sixth-seeded BYU beat 11th-seeded VCU 80-71 in the first round of the East Region on Thursday.
Fousseyni Traore scored 13 points and Keba Keita had nine points and nine rebounds for the Cougars (25-9), who will face No. 3 Wisconsin in the second round on Saturday after avoiding a second straight upset as a No. 6 seed.
The Badgers beat Montana 85-66 earlier Thursday.
BYU lost to No. 11 seed Duquesne to open the 2024 tournament. This was coach Kevin Young’s first go-around after being hired from the NBA’s Phoenix Suns last spring.
“I pulled a lot of (players) aside and asked them, ‘Are we missing anything? Are we hitting all the right things?'” Young said. “They were definitely good sounding boards for me, being my first time through it.”
Zeb Jackson had a season-high 23 points, and Jack Clark, Joe Bamisile and Max Shulga finished with 12 points apiece for VCU (28-7). Bamisile and Shulga, who came into the game each averaging 15.1 points, struggled on offense. Bamisile was 4-for-15 from the field and Shulga 4-for-10.
The Cougars surged to an 11-point halftime lead and extended it in the first minutes of the second half.
Saunders hit a 3-pointer and then converted a three-point play. Trevin Knell answered Bamisile’s 3-pointer with one from behind the arc. Demin and Mawot Mag scored layups off two VCU turnovers, and Keita tipped in Demin’s miss to make it 54-34 with 15:59 left.
The Rams cut into the lead when Shulga hit two straight 3-pointers after missing five of his first six attempts. Demin missed on the other end and Jackson drained one from the top to get VCU within 60-50.
BYU got the lead back up to 15 with 4:57 left. The Rams cut it to nine with 1:02 left but the Cougars held on.
In the first half, Jackson’s jumper tied the game at 24 with 6:44 left but VCU went cold the rest of the period. Mag started a BYU surge with a layup, Traore sank a hook shot and two free throws and Knell drained a 3-pointer in a 12-2 run that made it 39-28 heading into intermission.
“During that little run, a lot of the second unit was right in there making it happen,” Saunders said. “I love it because there’s so many different tools that we can use as a team. We were playing fast, sharing the ball, which is BYU basketball right there.”
“Certainly a key time in the game was the last three minutes, 30 seconds,” VCU coach Ryan Odom said. “I think at four minutes it’s a one-point game, something like that. We had four really bad offensive plays. I think we had three turnovers right in a row. We had a couple of breakdowns on defense. What ended up being a one-possession game turned into 11 points.”
Shulga and Bamisile combined to score just six points in the first half.
–Michael Kelly, Field Level Media
