The nation’s leading scorer faces the nation’s second-best defense when No. 16 BYU hosts No. 8 Houston on Saturday night at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah.
BYU’s AJ Dybantsa tops the country with 23.9 points per game, but will face his stiffest test to date against a Houston defense that has allowed just 61.4 points per game.
Dybantsa, regarded as one of the top prospects for the upcoming NBA draft, is coming off a 36-point performance in BYU’s 99-92 loss at Oklahoma State on Wednesday night. It marked the Cougars’ third straight loss and fourth in their last five.
BYU (17-5, 5-4 Big 12) is looking to get back on track after it started league play 4-0.
“We’ve just got to get ourselves out of this hole,” Dybantsa said after the Oklahoma State loss. “(Coach Kevin Young) said in the team meeting after, it’s hard to go through adversity, but I mean, if we want to be the team that we want to be, we’ve got to dig ourselves out of this.”
The three-game losing skid started with BYU’s first home loss of the season, an 86-83 loss to No. 1 Arizona on Jan. 26. The Cougars have since lost consecutive road games at then-No. 14 Kansas and Oklahoma State.
Still, BYU boasts one of the top rosters in the country with Dybantsa, Richie Saunders and Robert Wright III all capable of exploding for big nights. Saunders is averaging 19.5 points per game while Wright is averaging 17.4 points.
As a team, BYU is averaging 86.7 points per game, which is the second-best offense in the Big 12. However, the 99 points given up to Oklahoma State were a season high.
“Our defense, it was terrible,” Young said afterward. “They had 52 points in the paint. They scored at will. We couldn’t keep anyone in front of us, and it was just a layup fest.”
Over the three-game skid, opponents have averaged 91.7 points per game against BYU.
For Houston (20-2, 8-1), its defense has become its identity. The Cougars have held their last two opponents to 55 and 54 points, respectively, including a 79-55 victory over UCF on Wednesday.
Kingston Flemings has emerged as a top scoring threat and led Houston with 18 points in the victory over the Knights. Flemings is averaging 17.0 points and 5.5 assists. Chris Cenac Jr. is a double-double threat as he had 14 points and 10 rebounds against UCF. For the season, Cenac is averaging 9.5 points and 7.8 rebounds.
All signs point to Houston gearing up for another deep March Madness run as it has already reached the 20-win mark for the 11th straight season under Kelvin Sampson. Reaching that milestone yet again is something that Sampson mentioned after the UCF victory.
“I don’t take it for granted,” Sampson said. “But I’ve been coaching for a long time. I know how hard it is to win a game. It’s very hard to win a game.”
Sampson went on to reiterate that point, specifically winning in the Big 12 when “the league is so good.”
BYU poses yet another challenge, although Houston has won the last three matchups between the programs. The latest victory for Houston was a 74-54 win in last year’s Big 12 tournament.
