UConn holds off BYU comeback: AJ Dybantsa can’t complete Cougars rally
Few teams — perhaps no teams — scheduled as aggressively for the non-conference portion of their schedule this season as UConn.
After last season’s turbulent, high-profile failure — when the Huskies fell far short of making the Final Four, let alone winning a third straight national title — Dan Hurley looked at the obstacles. This would have been understandable if the Huskies were content to schedule competitive games.
But look at what is yet to come.
They programmed as if they wanted to atone for bad behavior.
Saturday night they played like that (for the most part).
The pack of six notable majors that Hurley’s program has on the schedule over the next four weeks began Saturday, with the high-profile top-10 game against No. 7 BYU Boston at TD Garden. No. 3 Connecticut won 86-84, avoiding a collapse after leading by as many as 20 points in the second half against a short-handed Cougars team that opened the game with one starter and quickly lost another.
A Connecticut runaway in the first 25 minutes of play turned into a gritty stoppage of a victory against a dangerous offense and one of the most talented players in college basketball, Cougars freshman AJ Dybantsa, a potential top pick in the NBA draft.
BYU allowed UConn to win in the final five minutes. Hurley would have preferred a more definitive victory, but he can be satisfied that this team can achieve such a victory. His group missed a few matches of this ilk last season. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a victory.
Thanks to Dybantsa, who scored 21 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, more than half of which raised eyebrows. This game was planned specifically for Dybantsa, who grew up in nearby Brockton, Massachusetts, and was a little nervous in the first half. If he had brought BYU all the way, it would have been the most remarkable individual performance of the first two weeks of the season. Even aside from that, it’s still encouraging for Dybantsa and BYU that he was able to easily find the shift to swing in the second half and be the catalyst for what would have been a remarkable comeback — especially with two starters.
BYU did not dress Kennard Davis Jr. following his arrest for driving under the influence charges of a substance that has not yet been revealed. In the first half, critical big man Keba Keita took a hit to the head from Silas Demary Jr., knocking him out of the game.
Even without two of its top five players, BYU found itself in a close game — and could have tied or won outright if not for Rob Wright III’s sixth turnover, which came with 12 seconds remaining when he lost the ball through his legs with BYU trailing 85-82. Dybantsa never had a chance to touch the ball with the game on the line.
Who was there to recover the flight when Wright coughed it up? Demary.
And that’s what I remember most about Saturday night. Yes, even above Dybantsa’s NBA lottery posting in a losing effort.
Demary Jr. emerges as a new key piece
If UConn wants to return to the Final Four this season, it will take a lot of things to fall into place. Demary’s role in this team is essential for this objective. They need a guy like him to win some games against really good teams.
We saw him for the first time on Saturday evening. We will see him again several times over the next four months.
At 6-foot-4, nearly 200 pounds with above-average strength for a combo guard, Demary brings a player profile that UConn lacked last season. This Huskies team needed toughness, size and continuity game after game in the backcourt. On Saturday, Demary provided the antidotes. He probably reminded himself of Hurley, Where was it last year? like when he made two shots (one on a bunny with 3:15 left, the other on a tricky mid-range fadeaway with 1:31 left) that increased UConn’s cushion from five to seven each time. Those four points were crucial as BYU continued to chip away at the deficit.
His two-way presence will go a long way in ensuring that this season won’t be like last season for Connecticut.
Demary finished with 21 points, seven assists and five rebounds. Alex Karaban and Tarris Reed Jr. also had 21 points each, but their ability and value are understood in this locker room and by the UConn fan base. (Reed was playing with a hamstring strain that still hasn’t fully healed, according to Hurley’s postgame comments.) It can’t just be Karaban, Reed and Solo Ball (who struggled).
Who stepped in and made up for Ball’s tumultuous evening? Demary. He look at like a Dan Hurley player. When BYU was sniffing blood, Demary didn’t let the pendulum swing completely in the Cougars’ favor.
So, one big opponent down and five more to play in the next 27 days. Next up for Connecticut is another glitzy matchup, one that has the potential to be the best we’ll have in November. Saturday was all about the top 10, but how are the top five doing? Because that’s what we’ll get Wednesday at Gampel Pavilion, when No. 5 Arizona flies across the country to try his luck against the Huskies. The Wildcats just beat No. 15 UCLA Friday night in Los Angeles and it looks like an incredible test with Koa Peat who, like Dybantsa, is a top-five pick.
Another massive game in a loaded November slate for college basketball.
Another opportunity for UConn to show that last season was an aberration, that the Huskies once again have the pieces to compete with the best teams the sport has to offer.
