alt=Jeff CallAs if things didn’t start out badly enough for BYU Friday with starting guard Spencer Johnson out due to an injury, it took the Cougars seven minutes to score their first point against Dayton in the last-place game of The Battle 4 Atlantis.
BYU proceeded to dig an enormous hole for itself, falling behind by 23 points, 32-9, with six minutes left in the first half.
It appeared that the Cougars were about to lose their third game in three days at Imperial Arena in The Bahamas — and this time in embarrassing fashion.
But in the second half, everything changed.
The Cougars mounted a furious rally — tying the score at the end of regulation and pulling out an improbable, dramatic 79-75 overtime victory over the Flyers.
“I couldn’t be more proud,” said coach Mark Pope. “These players are so hungry to get better and do it together. It’s pretty special.”
It marked the largest comeback in the history of The Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.
Speaking of historic, 10 years ago, BYU recorded the largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history after trailing Iona by 25 points and winning 78-72 — which happened, ironically, at University of Dayton Arena, the Flyers’ home court — in the First Four.
That was Pope’s first season as an assistant coach with the Cougars.
Anyway, Friday was a symmetrical victory for BYU — it was outscored 40-24 in the first half and it outscored Dayton 40-24 in the second half.
In overtime, Jaxson Robinson knocked down a 3-pointer that put the Cougars up 69-66, giving them a lead they would not relinquish.
Robinson drilled another big 3 with 1:43 left in OT to give BYU a 74-68 lead.
But there were numerous players that stepped up for the Cougars on a day when they were without Johnson, one of their team leaders and their second-leading scorer.
“I felt like it wasn’t just one person on the team. It was everybody,” said Robinson, who scored 14 points and made four 3-pointers against Dayton. “Everybody had to contribute in a different way, whether that be on the bench or on the court. Everybody did a great job of that in the second half. The first half was really rough for us. All you can do is fight and claw back and that’s exactly what we did and we got the win.”
Gideon George scored a team-high 21 points, hit three 3-pointers, and grabbed six rebounds. George made a big free throw with 1:03 left in regulation to help send the game to OT.
With 2:19 remaining in regulation, a George 3-pointer gave BYU (4-3) its first lead of the game, 63-62.
Freshman Dallin Hall came off the bench to score a career-high 12 points and dished out a team-high five assists.
“We got down early but we showed a lot of fight and came back. A lot of guys stepped up and hit big shots,” Hall said. “Coach helped us, put the right players in and put us in the right position and we were able to have a comeback victory.”
Another freshman, Richie Saunders, came off the bench to add eight points and three assists.
As a team, BYU knocked down 13 of 27 from 3-point territory — nine in the second half.
Fousseyni Traore scored six points and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds. Rudi Williams finished with 11 points.
Down 16 at intermission, the Cougars steadily chipped away at the deficit, thanks in large part to 3-point shooting.
How did BYU get so far behind in the first place?
“I probably didn’t do a great job preparing us for this game. So much of it was our head space,” Pope said. “We really started out on our heels. We were trying to play cautious. We have some holes in our game that we’re trying to address.
“… Dayton’s a great team. They were in the top 25 a week ago. They’re veteran guys and they know how to play together and they’ve been through these wars. All of that put together got us off to a tough start.”
While BYU was without Johnson, Dayton went into the overtime period down three starters — one due to fouls and two due to injury.
Meanwhile, the Cougars never stopped believing that they could salvage a victory amid the wreckage that was the first half performance.
“It was a rough first half and I knew everybody felt down. But we all knew that we couldn’t go out like that,” Robinson said. “We all knew we had to fight and that’s exactly what we came out and did.”
“Tonight showed a lot about our character. It shows that we can always come back and win. But when they jumped us early and then we came out and we had a timeout and coach told us that we needed to compete,” Hall said.
“We had a couple of defensive rebounds where we really boxed out and we got out and ran. After that, I felt like we had a chance at winning. We had to do it one possession at a time. It was a process. With this group of guys, I always believe we have a chance at winning.”
So after losing to USC and Butler in the first two days in The Bahamas, the shorthanded Cougars provided a strong, memorable finish to the week.
Not coincidentally, BYU had its season-low with only 11 turnovers. The Cougars also held the Flyers (3-4) to 38.9% shooting in the second half.
What did Pope learn about his team over the past three days at The Battle 4 Atlantis?
“We’ve got a long way to go, clearly, if we’re going to be nationally relevant,” he said. “The first night, we just weren’t great. Our competitive nature wasn’t great. Our spirit wasn’t great. We really struggled. Then last night, our competitive spirit was excellent … we made huge progress and still ended up with a loss.
“Tonight, these guys managed to put two things together — incredible competitive spirit and a little healthy dose of execution. These guys can get better. They’re hungry to get better. Our expectation together as a team is that we’re going to get better and better. We’re not a great team right now. But we all believe that we have a chance to become a really, really good team. We just have got a lot of work to do.”
Certainly, as the Cougars pursue improvement, at least they can do so basking in the glow of an improbable comeback victory.
BYU takes on Westminster at Vivint Arena Tuesday.