Saunders and Traore pull BYU basketball past slow start to win over Vandals

PROVO – BYU basketball’s fourth win of the season came straight from rural Sanpete County.

Fousseyni Traore had a career-high 29 points and nine rebounds, and former Wasatch Academy teammate Richie Saunders added a career-best 26 points, three blocks and four steals as the Cougars pulled away from Idaho 95-71 on Saturday afternoon at the Marriott Center .

Egor Demin scored 16 points with seven assists, three blocks and three steals for BYU (4-0), which overcame a slow first half to win by double figures.

Tyler Mrus led Idaho with 17 points, and All-Big Sky preseason selection Julius Mims had 14 points and six assists for the visiting Vandals (1-3).

“I thought it was good for our guys to play a game that was closer than the score indicated,” said BYU head coach Kevin Young. “I was happy with our execution; I thought we committed a foul at the right time.”

Idaho opened the game by shooting 64% from the field and draining five of the Vandals’ first six three-point attempts to lead by as many as seven in the first half behind a balanced effort from Mims and Kristian Gonzalez.

Keba Keita capped a 5-0 spurt to lift BYU to a 33-30 lead with five minutes left in the half, and Demin had 6 points, four assists, three blocks and three steals to lead the Cougars to a halftime lead of 41-38. .

But BYU shot just 5-of-17 from deep and 6-of-16 from the free-throw line before halftime, 9 points each ahead of Traore and Saunders, who also had two blocks and two steals.

Instead, Mims had 9 points and four rebounds before halftime for an Idaho squad coming off a 23-point loss to Washington State and a 4-point setback to UC Davis.

However, the Tigers’ former teammates were just getting started.

“It’s definitely (special),” Traore said of his relationship with Saunders, before adding: “He’s my little brother.”

At that point, a slightly blushing Saunders – who is over a year older than Traore – responded with a joke of his own: “Yes, how old are you?”

Whether through chemistry or kinship, the duo was virtually unstoppable in the second half. Yes, including offensively, where Saunders and Traore combined for 55 points on 21-of-27 shooting with four 3-pointers and 9-of-10 free throws.

But more important was the defensive end, where they combined for four blocks, four steals and 11 defensive rebounds.

“That’s where I try to hang my hat,” Saunders said of the defensive end, giving credit to former BYU assistant Kahil Fennell, now head coach at UTRGV. “Coach Fennell challenged me for the first two years of my career here (on defense), spending hours with him. Now with coaches here and specifically coach Jon (Linehan), that was the biggest focus.”

It also leads to some crucial minutes for Saunders, who has played 26 minutes or more in three of the Cougars’ first four games. He starts all after coming off the bench in all but three of his first 68 games in the two years prior.

“He’s hard for me to keep off the floor,” Young said of Saunders. “He’s a guy who creates his own offense, creates his own energy, turns his defense into an offense for me. He’s one of our most important guys … and I thought he was unbelievable tonight.”

Saunders didn’t slow down in the second half, capping a 14-3 run with a vicious dunk to give the Cougars a 60-46 lead after just under six minutes of play. The 6-foot-1 junior from Riverton by way of Wasatch Academy also had a 3-pointer, a smooth layup and found Kanon Catchings on the run in transition.

Traore took over and catapulted the Cougars’ lead to 74-57 with 7:04 left, with a personal 7-0 from the Malian big man from Wasatch Academy.

Traore didn’t miss a shot until 6:08 into the second half. He finished shooting 11-of-12 from the field and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free-throw line.

BYU is off next week before hosting Mississippi Valley State on Saturday, November 23 at 7:00 PM MST before a three-game road trip begins on November 28 against No. 25 Ole Miss in San Diego.