BYU quickly goes from scoring an upset to suffering one.
After notching what seemed to be a rejuvenating win over No. 6 Iowa State this past weekend, the Cougars fell 97-84 Tuesday night to unranked UCF in the most disappointing performance of the Kevin Young era.
The Cougars are now 20-8 on the season and 8-7 in Big 12 play.
3 takeaways
UCF dominated from start to finish. BYU never led at any point on Tuesday, falling into a 10-point hole after less than four minutes and going into halftime trailing by 24.
Any sliver of hope for dramatic late comeback vanished once UCF opened the second half on a 12-0 run.
The Cougars may have only lost by 13 points, but it felt much more like 30 — a margin by which they trailed for the majority of the second half before UCF took its foot off the gas.
With the loss, BYU broke a 16-game win streak against unranked opponents at home.
But more concerningly, such a setback could cause a significant slide for the Cougars’ NCAA tournament seeding a few weeks from now.
BYU couldn’t stop UCF. When the Cougars fell 99-92 at Oklahoma State earlier this month, it felt as if their defense had hit rock bottom.
However, giving up 97 points at home to UCF is clearly much more alarming, especially considering the Knights were playing without their leading scorer Riley Kugel, who missed the game with an injury.
UCF made five of its first six 3-pointers and never slowed down, having a separate stretch of nine of 12 makes and finishing the night shooting 58% from behind the arc.
In all, the Knights shot 56% from the field, scored 44 paint points, 19 points in transition and averaged 1.31 points per possession.
A stronger second half couldn’t salvage BYU’s poor offensive showing. The Cougars did score 56 points after halftime, but considering their second half scoring didn’t begin until being down by 36 points, it’s safe to say the whole period was essentially just garbage time.
In all, BYU shot 41% from the field and 33% from 3-point range. In the first half, those marks were 31% and 27%, respectively, for a meager 28 points.
