BYU missed eight of its first nine 3-pointers Monday night. Ohio State led by 11. The Cougars looked headed for the same first-half repair job they needed in both exhibitions.
Then the repair became a demolition.
No. 25 BYU scored 60 points after halftime, shot 20 of 29 from the field and made seven of 10 from deep to beat Ohio State 94-83 at the Delta Center. Robert Wright III supplied 33 points, five assists and only one turnover. Every BYU starter reached double figures.
The final says the Cougars won by 11. The useful part is how quickly a cold, hesitant offense became decisive without changing who it trusted.
The game turned on both sides of halftime
Ohio State led 24-13 with 8:32 left in the first half. The Buckeyes had found paint finishes, made six first-half 3-pointers and kept BYU from building any rhythm outside. BYU opened 1 for 9 from deep and did not lead during the first 20 minutes.
The Cougars still reached halftime down only 37-34. Wright scored 14 before the break, and Nate Pickens hit a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer. That shot did more than trim the margin. It carried a functional possession into the locker room after BYU had spent much of the half searching for one.
BYU scored on eight of nine possessions across the break, according to the Columbus Dispatch’s courtside account. Collin Chandler opened the second half with a 3-pointer. Bruce Branch III followed with a turnaround jumper to give BYU its first lead. Wright hit from the corner, and Jaxon Kohler finished a three-point play for a 50-43 advantage.
Ohio State answered. Amare Bynum drove the Buckeyes back into the game, and John Mobley Jr.’s layup gave Ohio State a 57-55 lead with about 12 minutes left.
That was the last Buckeye lead.
BYU answered with the sequence that decided the opener. Kohler and Chandler scored inside, Tyler Betsey made a 3-pointer, Kohler added two more baskets, and Wright’s outside shot pushed the margin to 73-61. The Associated Press records the decisive surge as 14-2. Ohio State had recovered from BYU’s first punch, only to find that the Cougars had another creator and another clean look waiting.
Wright controlled the game without owning every shot
Wright’s 33 points came on 9-of-15 shooting, 4 of 5 from deep and 11 of 12 at the line. He also led BYU with five assists and committed one turnover in 33:46.
That is an efficient scoring line. It is an even better possession line.
Ohio State could not solve Wright with one coverage. He reached the paint when defenders played him straight, drew contact when help arrived and made the outside shots that were supposed to be the defense’s safer concession. His late alley-oops to Branch and Khadim Mboup punished the Buckeyes for turning too much attention toward the ball.
Wright did not need to take 25 shots to reach 33. He used 15 field-goal attempts and 12 free throws, then created five more baskets for teammates. BYU could keep the ball in his hands without freezing the rest of the lineup.
That distinction matters. The pregame watch guide framed the opener as a possession test. Ohio State had forced 16 turnovers in its Butler exhibition, while BYU was still trying to fit several scorers into one attack. The Cougars finished Monday with eight turnovers. Their five starters combined for 86 points and filled different jobs around Wright.
| BYU starter | Points | FG | 3PT | Rebounds | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Wright III | 33 | 9-15 | 4-5 | 1 | 5 |
| Collin Chandler | 15 | 5-14 | 2-9 | 4 | 1 |
| Tyler Betsey | 15 | 5-6 | 4-5 | 7 | 0 |
| Bruce Branch III | 12 | 5-11 | 0-3 | 3 | 3 |
| Jaxon Kohler | 11 | 4-7 | 0-1 | 6 | 1 |
Chandler’s 5-of-14 line was the least efficient of the five, but his second-half movement mattered. He hit the shot that tied the game, attacked space when Ohio State pressed toward Wright and finished above the rim late. Branch scored inside to produce BYU’s first lead and made the pass-and-finish work that kept the floor connected.
Kohler gave BYU an interior answer without requiring the offense to slow down. His four baskets came on seven attempts, and he did not commit a foul in 25 minutes. That clean availability became more valuable as Ohio State’s frontcourt collected fouls.
Betsey made Ohio State pay for helping
Betsey’s line may be the sharpest explanation for why Wright’s night became so difficult to guard. The junior forward scored 15 points on six field-goal attempts, made four of five from deep and led BYU with seven rebounds.
Ohio State could shade another defender toward Wright, but it could not leave Betsey without paying full price. His fourth 3-pointer came during BYU’s closing push and restored separation after the Buckeyes had tried to stay within one run.
Betsey also answered the concern that followed BYU out of the UNLV exhibition. The Cougars lost that rebound count 41-34. Against Ohio State, the total was nearly even at 31-30 for the Buckeyes, and BYU matched Ohio State’s 10 offensive rebounds.
That is not control of the glass. It is enough to keep the rebounding problem from swallowing the offense. Betsey’s seven boards and Kohler’s six gave BYU 13 from the starting frontcourt. Team rebounds lifted the Cougar total to 30, while the Buckeyes scored 14 second-chance points to BYU’s 12.
The issue remains worth watching. Andrija Jelavic grabbed six offensive rebounds by himself, and Ohio State still created useful extra possessions. BYU did not erase the concern from Las Vegas. It kept the deficit small enough that Wright and the second-half shooting could decide the game.
The shooting swing was real, but the process came first
BYU’s first-half shooting line was ordinary at best: 39.3% overall, 4 of 14 from deep and 8 of 12 at the line. After halftime, the Cougars shot 69% overall, 70% from three and 86.7% at the stripe.
No team should expect to make seven of 10 3-pointers every half. The repeatable part came before the makes.
BYU reached the paint. Ohio State had to foul or help. The next pass found a set shooter rather than a bailout attempt. Wright’s drives moved the defense. Kohler’s interior work occupied size. Betsey punished the empty space. Chandler and Branch attacked defenders who were already turning.
The Buckeyes’ own shooting moved the other direction. Ohio State made six of 12 3-pointers in the first half, then three of 16 in the second. Some of that is normal variance. Some came from BYU staying attached longer and forcing the next Buckeye action instead of losing the possession on the first closeout.
BYU did not win because every early miss became a late make. It won because the misses stopped ending the offense’s thought process. The Cougars kept creating an advantage until the shot was cleaner.
Ohio State still scored 46 points after halftime and finished at 49.1% from the field. Bynum scored 20 on 7-of-10 shooting, Mobley had 14 points and seven assists, and Jelavic added 13 points with nine rebounds. This was not a defensive shutdown.
It was a game in which BYU’s offense became too precise for a good Ohio State attack to match.
Five starters carried the opener, which is both answer and warning
BYU’s starting five scored 86 of 94 points. Pickens and Mboup each added three, and Brooks Bahr scored two. The bench total was eight.
For one opener, that distribution makes sense. Wright was controlling the game, Betsey could not miss, and the starting group had found the spacing that Ohio State could not contain. Kevin Young had no reason to interrupt a lineup that scored 60 points in a half.
The season will ask for more. A conference schedule will not let five starters absorb every hard minute and solve every foul problem. Ohio State’s bench outscored BYU’s 22-8, even though the Cougars won the game comfortably.
The concern is not that BYU used its best players. It is that the margin for an off night narrows if the reserve group cannot create or defend without Wright directing every possession. Mboup’s two late finishes showed one useful answer: a reserve does not need a large scoring package if he can screen, run and finish what the guards create.
That is work for Omaha and the rest of November. Monday belonged to the starting group because all five gave Ohio State a different problem.
What the opener changed
BYU’s two exhibitions followed the same script: trail at halftime, adjust, win by double figures. The UNLV review warned that the pattern would become expensive once the games counted.
Ohio State made it expensive. The Buckeyes built an 11-point lead and held BYU to 34 first-half points. The Cougars did not avoid the rescue. They made it far cleaner than either preseason version.
Wright supplied the star line expected from a preseason All-Big 12 guard. Betsey turned help defense into four made 3-pointers. Kohler gave the frontcourt a steady interior finish. Branch and Chandler kept advantages moving. BYU committed only eight turnovers against the pressure test and scored 60 after halftime.
That is enough to call the opener encouraging. It is not enough to call the first-half problem solved.
BYU returns to the Marriott Center on Friday, Nov. 6 for a 7 p.m. Mountain home game against Omaha on ESPN+. The permanent men’s basketball schedule has the next event details, and the current roster tracks the rotation as Young tests more combinations.
The best part of Monday was not the 94. It was that BYU found those points without asking one player to take every shot. Wright owned the decisions. The rest of the starters made Ohio State regret every answer.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics: stable event 25256 for the completed status, stable event ID, official recap, WMT game ID, date and Delta Center venue.
- BYU Athletics: official 94-83 recap for the game sequence, second-half response and Omaha follow-up.
- BYU Athletics and WMT: official box score and final WMT game 6630264 for the score, period splits, player lines, team totals, attendance and finalized shooting percentages.
- Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State-side courtside report for independent confirmation of the cross-halftime scoring sequence and Ohio State’s second-half defensive problems.
- Associated Press via Yahoo Sports for independent confirmation of the final, Wright’s 33 points and the decisive second-half run.
- BYU Sport Nuts: Ohio State watch guide, UNLV exhibition analysis, men’s basketball schedule and current roster.
- BYU brand colors and Ohio State Buckeye UX primary colors for the verified palettes used in the original matchup art.
