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PROVO — With the nation's No. 1 recruit and recent BYU signee sitting behind the home bench with his father, Ace, Trevin Knell swallowed a dose of AJ Dybantsa juice Tuesday night.
Knell poured in 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-6 3-pointers, with 10 rebounds for his first career double-double as the Cougars pulled past Fresno State 95-67 at the Marriott Center.
Richie Saunders added 17 points, including three 3-pointers, and Dawson Baker scored 14 with four boards for BYU (7-2), which led by as much as 27 points midway through the second half.
Kanon Catchings had 10 points, four rebounds and three assists; and Keba Keita added 12 points, eight rebounds and three assists for the Cougars in their first home game since Nov. 23. Dallin Hall finished with 13 points and four assists, and Fousseyni Traore grabbed 10 rebounds.
Jalen Weaver scored 15 points to lead Fresno State (3-7), which trailed BYU on the glass 50-27.
"He had 10 boards? Wow. OK," BYU coach Kevin Young said of his senior's career milestone. "Trev's awesome. He does everything right, one of our captains, knows what we want to do and he does it at a high level out there.
"Really? That's his first career double-double? We've got to frame this stat sheet for him."
. @trevin_knell had himself a game👏 pic.twitter.com/nPcHALswk9
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) December 12, 2024
Don't get it twisted for that team captain, though; Wednesday night was "a credit to my teammates," Knell said.
"Shout out to Richie; he got me two quick ones with the last-second halftime tip-out to me, and padding stats with a quick little floater," he joked, with Saunders next sitting next to him. "It's fun to have the guys on the bench be so excited for something like that, too. This team is really special for how excited we get for things like that."
After a stodgy game of limited defense, BYU used a 13-3 run that included 3-pointers by Knell and Traore over a 3:40 span midway through the first half to take a 32-23 lead over the visiting Bulldogs.
"I think I cried," Saunders deadpanned about the triple from Traore, who shot 2-of-4 for 5 points in 19 minutes to go along with his 10 boards.
Playing in his first game with Egor Demin (knee contusion) for what may be the rest of the nonconference slate, Hall beat the shot clock with a 3-pointer and BYU held Fresno State scoreless for the final 3:54 of the first half en route to a 44-27 halftime lead.
After falling behind by 27 midway through the second half, Jasir Tremble paced a 13-3 run to pull Fresno State within 73-57. But Baker broke a three-minute scoreless drought with a pair of free throws, and Hall canned a triple moments later to keep the 25.5-point favorites well in front.
Fresno State scored 18 points off 17 turnovers, but gave up 10 points off 11 giveaways in a fifth straight loss as the Bulldogs shot just 35% from the field.
Eight days after being run out of the gym with an 83-64 loss to Providence, BYU sat idle for a week before it could play again. Amid the chaos of finals week, the Cougars drilled down on defense, and even scheduled a full-game scrimmage against each other Saturday to try to shake off some of what ailed them against the Friars.
Did it work? For at least one night — against very different competition, and without the Cougars' five-star freshman — it did.
"It was a big gut-check. The last few days in practice, it was really specific," Saunders said. "It was cool just to see us take that and apply it. It's one thing to practice it, but to take it on to the court with everybody is another thing."
BYU will host Wyoming at 7 p.m. MST Saturday at Delta Center.
