BYU made another overwhelmed opponent look like it did this Saturday night at the Marriott Center, beating Georgia State 86-54 and improving to 10-1 on the year.
The No. 18 Cougars never trailed in the contest, jumping out to a 9-0 lead and never looking back.
The Panthers did make things interesting late in the first half, finding a way to cut BYU's lead to five, but they never got close as the Cougars remained in control of the game from start to finish.
“It was a great win,” said BYU junior big man Aly Khalifa. “(I) feel like we played super hard from jump to finish. Especially at the start of the second half, I feel like we separated ourselves from them… I feel like everyone played well.”
Getting good nights from multiple players has become a theme of the school season. On Saturday, the Cougars had their sixth leading scorer of the year as second-year forward Richie Saunders scored a career-best 20 points off the bench. Saunders' career night proved timely after senior sharpshooter Jaxson Robinson, the school's sixth man and leading scorer, suffered an ankle injury on a fast-break basket.
BYU coach Mark Pope said Robinson perhaps could have returned in the second half, but instead the fifth-year Cougars coach and his staff decided it was better to take extensive precautions.
In the end, BYU's offensive firepower without Robinson was more than enough to get the job done.
Luckily for the Cougars, despite Robinson being out, the Cougars got a player back from injury as junior guard Dawson Baker made his BYU debut. The UC Irvine transfer, who is dealing with a foot injury, finished the night with six points in nine minutes, showing how strong the school's squad is.
Pope praised his team's strength after the win. “If you want to be a high-level basketball team, you need depth,” he said. “That will help us run the gauntlet that we’re about to start here.”
Before Saturday night, BYU and Georgia State had met only once – a meeting in 2012 in which the Cougars beat the Panthers by 18 points in Provo.
BYU extended that lead with a 20-point lead less than three and a half minutes into the second half of the schools' second half. The Cougars would increase this lead over time, eventually earning another win by more than 30 points.
With the win over the Panthers, BYU remains perfect at home this year, having won six of those seven games by 16 or more points.
What gave the Cougars an impressive night against Georgia State was their ability to control the ball, ending the night with a season-low four turnovers.
“That was a real Achilles heel for us last year,” Pope said of the turnovers. “These guys were self-policing all summer; and it's important to them… I know they're really proud of themselves and they should be because (just four turnovers is) pretty remarkable.”
About a third of the way through the season, the school has performed remarkably well in many ways. Most importantly, in the win column, Saturday's win represents BYU's fastest win to reach the double-digit win mark since 2010. This season, the Cougars were 10-0 behind a historic season from Jimmer Fredette as he took over the college basketball world.
BYU has once again garnered some attention in the college basketball community this year, but remains focused on the task at hand in hopes that this season can be just as magical as the one 13 years ago.
“It’s great,” Cougars second-year point guard Dallin Hall said when asked what it means to be on a similar track to the Sweet Sixteen team. “It’s exciting, but for us it’s just one game at a time.”
BYU will resume play next week when it welcomes Bellarmine to Provo on Friday. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. MST.