No. 25 BYU brings a four-game winning streak and a fresh national ranking into Wednesday night’s game against Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz.
The Cougars (19-8, 10-6 Big 12) followed up last week’s rout of then-No. 23 Kansas with a 96-95 victory Saturday at then-No. 19 Arizona.
The next challenge is beating an Arizona State team that ended its six-game losing streak with a 66-54 win Sunday at Kansas State.
The Sun Devils (13-14, 4-12) will play the rest of the season without leading scorer BJ Freeman, who was dismissed from the program Sunday for conduct detrimental to the team.
Arizona State also may not have freshman standout Jayden Quaintance, who suffered an apparent knee injury with less than five minutes remaining against Kansas State. He finished with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting.
“I’m not sure about Jayden yet,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said. “He’ll get examined, and it didn’t look good how he fell, and that kid usually just bounces right up. So just holding our breath until we get some answers there.”
The Sun Devils have a seven-game home losing streak in Big 12 games.
BYU has won four of its last five road conference games, the latest on Saturday night when Richie Saunders made two late free throws against Arizona.
The Cougars achieved their first back-to-back wins over ranked opponents in 37 years with the victories over Kansas and Arizona.
Saunders, who scored a team-high 23 points at Arizona, went to the stripe with 3.2 seconds remaining after a foul was called on Trey Townsend. Saunders was driving to the basket and lost his balance after bumping into Townsend’s left leg but drew a whistle.
“Luckily we were able to make enough (plays) of our own; Richie was incredible,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “My message to our group is whatever the next challenge in front of us, we are trying to attack it, whether that is practice, whether that is a shootaround, whether that is a game.”
BYU defeated Arizona State 76-56 in the Big 12 opener for both teams at Provo, Utah, on Dec. 31.
Saunders scored a career-high 30 points in that game. The Cougars scored 19 points off 13 turnovers and outscored Arizona State 36-24 in the paint. BYU’s 38-28 rebounding advantage included 13 offensive rebounds for a 16-6 edge in second-chance points.
If Quaintance is unable to play Wednesday night, Arizona State will need other frontcourt players to step up.
Quaintance leads the Sun Devils with 7.9 rebounds per game. Basheer Jihad, a wing player, is next at 5.6 a game and 7-footer Shawn Phillips Jr. adds 4.6.
Phillips finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds in the win at Kansas State.
Arizona State’s perimeter game struggled without Freeman, who was averaging 13.7 points a game. Jihad, Alston Mason and Adam Miller combined for 18 points on 6-for-18 shooting from the field (3 of 11 from deep) against Kansas State.
–Field Level Media
