PROVO — AJ Dybantsa arrived sick enough to Wednesday night’s Big 12 contest that it was at least noticeable by the sleeves he uncharacteristically wore under his jersey for the first four minutes of his 17th start with BYU men’s basketball.
In the second half, he looked a little more like himself — jersey and all.
Dybantsa scored 17 of his game-high 25 points in the second half to go along with six rebounds to help No. 11 BYU rally by TCU 76-70 in front of 17,983 fans at the Marriott Center.
After shooting just 2-of-8 for 8 points and four rebounds in the first half, the five-star freshman came alive after the break. TCU held the Cougars to 28.1% shooting before the break before Dybantsa led a resurgence in clanking 15-of-36 after halftime in the win.
“I don’t have to say a whole lot to AJ. He’s a great player, even on an off-night he still looks like an all-around, generational type guy,” BYU coach Kevin Young said.
“He threw me off with the long sleeves. I don’t like when guys do stuff like that; I’m so routine driven,” the second-year head coach added cheekily. “But he’s a tough-minded kid. He didn’t say a whole lot to anyone about not feeling great. He just got in that mode that great players are able to get into.”
Dybantsa got plenty of help, too.
Robert Wright III added 15 points, six rebounds and six assists for BYU, which outrebounded the Horned Frogs 30-13 in the second half to overcome a 6-point halftime deficit.
Richie Saunders finished with 18 points and six rebounds, and Keba Keita notched 10 boards and three blocked shots for the Cougars (16-1, 4-0 Big 12).
“It was a gut-check type win for our group,” added Young, whose team finished with four players with three or more fouls — but none fouled out.
Xavier Edmonds led TCU (11-6, 1-3 Big 12) with 19 points and eight rebounds, and Micah Robinson supplied 10 points and six rebounds.
But the Cougars’ 17-point second-half rebounding differential — as well as a 21-9 overall advantage on the offensive glass — proved too much to overcome in TCU’s third straight loss.
“Offensive rebounds are the best way to score,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “They just overpowered us inside; they crashed the glass. We’ve got to do a better job blocking out — and we can’t be in foul trouble.”
Five nights after a closer-than-some-expected rivalry win over Utah — the kind of “welcome to the Big 12 moment” described by Dybantsa, BYU came out flat and missed on its first eight 3-point attempts before Wright drained a triple with 5:18 left in the first half to give the Cougars a 25-24 edge.
But the Frogs, whose 42.2% opponent field-goal percentage ranks ninth among Big 12 teams, held the Cougars to 28% shooting, including 1-of-11 from deep, while Xavier Edmonds had 14 points and six rebounds in the first half to take a 36-30 lead at the break.
Wright had 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting in the first half, while the rest of his teammates combined to shoot 5-of-23 before the halftime.
Dybantsa had a 3-pointer as the Cougars capped an 11-2 spurt with a tip-in by Keita to tie the game at 41-41. Dybantsa did it again, this time with a 3-pointer with 11:56 left that gave the Cougars a 55-49 advantage as part of a 12-3 run.
Illness or no illness, the five-star freshman was heating up as he shot 6-of-14 from the field, including a pair of 3-pointers and 3-of-3 from the free-throw line, with two rebounds in 16 minutes.
The Horned Frogs didn’t make it easy, tying the game at 63-all on Robinson’s fast break layup with 5:41 left.
But Saunders — who played the final 8:42 with four fouls — drained a triple with 2:14 remaining as part of a 9-2 run to help the Cougars hold off the upset bid.
BYU hits the road Saturday for a top-15 showdown with No. 15 Texas Tech (7 p.m. MST, ESPN).
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