Waterman catches fire to lead BYU to rout of Arizona State, 5-0 start

LAS VEGAS — Noah Waterman wasn't cooling off as BYU basketball looked to stay unbeaten to start the 2023-24 season Thursday night.

Not even close.

Waterman had a career-high 24 points and seven rebounds with six 3-pointers as BYU improved to 5-0 with a 77-49 win over Arizona State in the Cougars' opening game of the Vegas Showdown at Michelob ULTRA Arena.

Trevin Knell hit three 3-pointers and Richie Saunders added 9 points and five rebounds for BYU, which led by as much as 27 in the second half as Waterman received a loud ovation as he was replaced for the final time by Townsend Tripple with 4:12 remaining.

"He's an elite-level shooter, and he's been playing so hard," BYU coach Mark Pope said of Waterman. "He hasn't been shooting the ball particularly well, but he's been playing so hard that he's had huge impacts on the game before he started making shots. That's what good players do as well, and tonight he made a bunch of them and also played really hard."

With a bulging bandage covering his left eye in the second half, Fousseyni Traore added 6 points, nine rebounds and five assists while the Cougars outrebounded the Sun Devils 51-32 .

Jamiya Neal had 13 points and Frankie Collins added 11 points and six rebounds for Arizona State (2-2), which shot just 33.3% from the field.

But Waterman didn't finish the game after being called for leaving the bench during an end-of-game altercation involving teammate Atiki Ally Atiki. The 6-foot-10 center from Tanzania had 2 points and nine rebounds before being called for a flagrant foul for striking Arizona State's Akil Watson.

Both Atiki and Watson were ejected after a review by the officiating crew, while Waterman and ASU's Jose Perez were ejected for leaving the bench area.

By rule, Waterman's ejection would not carry a mandatory suspension. Atiki and Watson would, of course, for their rule in the scuffle that included Atiki throwing a punch while prone on the floor.

Pope said officials on-site weren't immediately clear what potential suspensions could be handed down for the nonconference event. The Cougars play North Carolina State in the second game of the multi-team event Friday at 8 p.m. MST on ESPN2.

"We're still trying to find out," Pope said when asked about potential suspensions for that game, adding that an outside officiating group would finalize any decisions Friday morning on the east coast.

On the court, the win inched the Cougars up to No. 12 in KenPom's predictive metrics with the No. 10-rated adjusted offense and No. 19 adjusted defense before Friday's title with ACC foe North Carolina State.

Spencer Johnson capped a 7-0 run with a 3-pointer from a foot in front of the mid-court logo to give the Cougars a 10-7 lead after five minutes. BYU also collected 10 of the first 12 rebounds, and held Arizona State without an offensive board until Bryant Selebangue pulled one down 38 seconds before the horn.

The Sun Devils went more than eight minutes in the first half without a point, but BYU didn't lead by more than six until Waterman drained his second off-balance 3-pointer to cap a 15-2 run with 7:02 left in the half.

The Cougars were just 5-of-16 from 2-point range, but knocked down 6-of-19 from three — including three triples from Waterman for 13 first-half points — en route to a 32-17 halftime advantage.

It's the third time in five games that BYU has held its opponent under 20 points in the first half. But this one went beyond the scoreboard and to the glass.

The Cougars outrebounded ASU 32-16 before the break, holding the Sun Devils to just 29% shooting that included a 1-of-11 mark from 3-point range and 0-for-6 from the free-throw line.

Were it not for seven turnovers and BYU's woeful 31% shooting that included 6-of-19 from deep, it could've been significantly worse.

"That first half was kind of mucky; we weren't playing ourselves," Knell said. "But we stayed with it. This dynamic on the team is special; I wish people could see how special this team is on the inside. This locker room is a different dynamic than the previous years that I've been here. Everybody trusts everybody. ... That first half might not be great. But then you look at the second half, we were getting what we wanted because we work so hard to be able to wear teams down."

Shaking off the tryptophan-activating first-half offense, Knell opened the second half with a pair of triples that helped push BYU's lead to 41-24 at the first media timeout.

ASU applied the full-court press, and the Cougars struggled with the increased tempo. But Waterman hit back-to-back 3-pointers, and Johnson found Traore inside to push the lead to 49-30 with 13:48 remaining.

"I was super proud of the guys for trying to punish the press, and that's what they did. Our ball security was good enough," said Pope, whose team committed 14 turnovers and forced 10. "Arizona State is super aggressive in that press, but if you get to the second line, it gives you chances at open shots. For our guys to step up and make them and for Noah to do that was huge."

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