BYU rekindles Wyoming rivalry with blowout win

PROVO — No. 14 BYU used an old WAC and MWC nemesis for a tuneup to its inaugural season in the Big 12, beating Wyoming 94-68 before a sold-out Marriott Center on Saturday.

The Cougars pulled out the same bag of tricks for the Cowboys that they’ve used all during a 12-1 nonconference run.

They shot a zillion 3s, made 14, played share-the-ball, rebounded like it was a real estate challenge and continued to get key plays from big men Noah Watermanh, Aly Khalifa and Atiki Ally Atiki.

Why is the last thing important?

Because BYU’s most talented rebounder and inside post offensive player, Fouss Traore, remained on the bench for the seventh consecutive game as he tries to get healthy.

Waterman made 6 of 11 shots including 5 of 10 from distance, grabbed eight rebounds and scored 17 points to tie Trevin Knell for team-high scoring honors.

Khalifa had eight assists with just one turnover and scored nine points with five rebounds on a night he made 2 of 3 3-pointers.

Atiki, playing with a broken thumb, had a career scoring night with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Two of those three big men combined for just two turnovers. Atiki had zero.

This from a team that was a turnover machine in its last season playing in the WCC.

If you were to point out the biggest achievement of this BYU team so far this season, next to fielding an impressive 3-point shooting offense, it is getting a handle on turnovers, especially from big men.

“We came ready to play and be who we are,” said Atiki, who has scored in double figures in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.

“We play unselfish, we share the ball and it’s important because it’s hard to defend us. That’s what we do.”

Atiki was the recipient of a trio of alley-oop passes for dunks as he shot 7 of 10 from the field.

Khalifa continued to put on a display as a 6-foot-11 passer, firing passes to mostly Knell (7 for 10) for easy layups inside Wyoming’s defense. Khalifa’s eight assists were a career high.

Nine different Cougars scored in BYU’s first half.

Pope praised Atiki, Knell and Waterman for their defensive play, pointing out Atiki’s growth as a defensive player this season.

“It’s important to us,” Pope said. “I made some adjustments in the game and they digested it, especially Atiki.”

BYU led Wyoming by as many as 31 points in the second half.

The Cougars used a season-long recipe to bust open this game with traditional rival Wyoming.

It came as predictable as a temperature drop in late December. Both teams hovered around a dozen points each the first six minutes, and then Pope brought in some subs like Atiki, Jaxson Robinson and Trey Stewart, and the Cougars exploded for an 18-0 run to lead by 19 at 39-20 within 10 minutes.

BYU’s bench is like an adrenaline shot for Pope’s squad. The energy is palpable and deadly.

“That’s the beauty of what they have been doing this year,” said Wyoming coach Jeff Linder. “They don’t have to play guys who are a little bit tired. The next guys coming in, it’s not like there is a drop-off and so their depth allows them to play at the pace they are playing at.

“If you are only playing six or seven guys, it’s hard to maintain playing at that fast of pace, so when they are playing nine, 10, 11 guys, it allows them to keep playing fast.”

Robinson got three steals in that first half, and during the 18-0 run, Atiki rolled off pick-and-roll plays for a pair of dunks on assists from Dallin Hall and Robinson buried a pair of fallaways as Richie Saunders slashed his way to a layup and Waterman calmly punched down three from distance.

The Pokes were desperate before intermission. By the half, BYU’s bench had outscored Wyoming 20-4 and at the end of the game, BYU’s bench outscored Wyoming’s reserves 41-7.

Pope kept center Traore out for the seventh straight game to nurse a leg injury. In his absence, starting center Khalifa had six points and Atiki eight in the first half.

“Everyone has this DNA, believing who we are,” said Knell. “Everybody is trusting everybody and to have Fouss go down and have Atiki step up means a lot. To throw it up and have him put it down is a lot of fun. This could make us scary.”

Pope said his team will remain humble heading into Big 12 play and keep working on weaknesses.

Linder said he is grateful Pope agreed to make this reunion a home and home with the Cowboys.

“They’ll return next year and for us to return to a rivalry that is this close by is very important,” Linder said. “I think in college basketball there are a lot of games that fans don’t care about. For a place like us at Wyoming that is hard to get teams to travel to, I appreciate Coach Pope being willing to come and play us when in reality they don’t have to. I think it’s a good thing for college basketball.”

BYU’s win marked its 14th straight victory over the Cowboys dating back to the Dave Rose era in the MWC.