Spencer Johnson scored 19 of his career-high 28 points in the first half and Noah Waterman added 18 as No. 20 BYU earned an 87-72 victory over No. 24 Iowa State at Provo, Utah, to win a home game in the Big 12 Conference for the first time.
Jaxson Robinson scored 15 points and Dallin Hall added 11 points with eight assists for the Cougars (14-3, 2-2), who entered off their first ever victory in their new conference, on the road at UCF on Saturday. Johnson and Aly Khalifa each had nine rebounds.
The Cougars went 13 of 35 (37.1 percent) from 3-point range as they improved to 2-1 against ranked teams. They beat then-No. 17 San Diego State on Nov. 10 but lost to then-No. 14 Baylor on Jan. 9.
Keshon Gilbert scored 16 points and Milan Momcilovic added 11 for Iowa State (13-4, 2-2), which beat then-No. 2 Houston last week before getting past Oklahoma State on Saturday.
In a tightly contested and physical game, BYU shot 47.4 percent from the floor while Iowa State was at 44.1 percent. The Cyclones shot 35.5 percent from the field in the second half when they went 1 of 11 from 3-point range.
After a back-and-forth opening 13 minutes of the game, BYU went on an 8-1 run to take a 32-26 lead with 3:47 remaining in the first half. The Cougars went on to lead by as many as seven in the opening 20 minutes before taking a 39-35 lead into halftime.
The Cyclones were within 41-39 just over a minute into the second half before the Cougars went on an 8-0 run for their first double-digit lead at 49-39 with 15:41 remaining.
Just under three minutes later, the Cougars started a decisive 11-3 run to take a 64-48 lead with 10:18 remaining in a stretch that included Iowa State’s Hason Ward getting ejected for a flagrant foul with a shoulder into the neck of BYU’s Richie Saunders.
In the first game between the programs since 2013, BYU defeated Iowa State for the first time in seven all-time meetings.
–Field Level Media
