Won and done: Saunders scores 16 to lead 6th-seeded BYU to 1st tournament win since 2012

DENVER — Maybe BYU's winless skid in the NCAA Tournament just needed some Mile High magic.

Richie Saunders had 16 points with four rebounds and two assists, and Egor Demin added 15 points with four rebounds as the sixth-seeded Cougars pulled past No. 11 VCU 80-71 to clinch their first tournament victory since 2012 in front of an announced crowd of 19,291 fans Thursday afternoon at the Ball Arena.

Fousseyni Traore added 13 points and nine rebounds, and Keba Keita had 9 points and nine rebounds for BYU (25-9), which advanced to face third-seeded Wisconsin in Saturday's Round of 32.

A year after a 71-67 loss to Duquesne in a first-round game in Omaha, Nebraska, the Cougars weren't about to let history repeat itself against another group of A-10 champions. First-year head coach Kevin Young wasn't on the court in what became Kentucky coach Mark Pope's final game with BYU.

But he "absolutely" felt the urgency of not letting another chance at a win in the NCAA Tournament slip away.

"That was another thing that gave me a lot of kind of comfort as I was preparing for this, we were preparing for this," said Young, whose 25 wins are the most by a first-year head coach in BYU history. "I pulled a lot of those guys aside and asked them, are we missing anything? Are we hitting all the right things? They were definitely good sounding boards for me, being my first time through it.

"That's something that we relied upon all year," he added. "Honestly, go back to my first press conference when I took the job, I made the comment I was going to rely on the returners to navigate the Big 12. Now here we are navigating the NCAA Tournament, as well."

Zeb Jackson had 23 points and four assists for VCU, and Joe Bamisile added 12 points including four 3-pointers for the Rams.

Jack Clark had 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists for VCU, which won the Atlantic-10 championship Sunday afternoon.

The Rams (28-7) were a top-31 team in both the NET and KenPom, including an adjusted defensive efficiency of 95.9 — rated No. 23 nationally by KenPom.

But BYU's offense was too much, shooting 50% from the field, including 7-of-20 from 3-point range and 17-of-25 from the free-throw line to close out its first tournament win in over a decade.

The 3-ball was kind to BYU in the first half. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Demin gave the Cougars a 14-10 edge six minutes in.

Another by Dawson Baker pushed BYU back in front with 9:26 to go as the Cougars held VCU without a bucket for more than two minutes.

The Cougars shot 50% from beyond the arc in the first half, while a defense led by Mawot Mag held the Rams to 37.9% from the field and just 4-of-16 from deep.

A-10 player of the year Max Shulga, a Utah State transfer, shot just 1-of-4 from the field in the first half for 3 points, two rebounds and two assists.

Shulga finished with 12 points, three rebounds and three assists on 4-of-10 shooting — doing all of his scoring from beyond the arc.

The Cougars weren't done, though. As soon as they got in the halftime locker room, coaches, captains and players mentioned "doubling down" and "running on" the Rams, according to senior Trevin Knell.

And that's exactly what they did, as Saunders scored 6 points and BYU opened the half with a 15-6 tear to stretch the lead as high as 20 when Keita polished off a 9-0 run at the rim with 15:59 to go.

"The elevation was on our side a little bit," said Knell, a fifth-year senior who finished with 8 points and a pair of boards. "When you play with this group of guys for so long, since summer, and you see the trajectory of the team, how good we've been, and everything that's been on our side, we kind of doubled down on running and passing the ball.

"Me and Egor talked a little bit before running a certain play," he added, "and we were able to coordinate well and he found me to get a three off. When you have the energy on the court matching the energy on the bench matching the energy of the crowd, everything was rolling for us. I think it's just awesome to play our brand of basketball; we talk about toughness, and I think we came out with that toughness."

Added Saunders: "Our team, we're so deep. As you noticed, like during that little run, a lot of the second unit was right in there making it happen. I love it because there's so many different tools that we can use as a team.

"We were playing fast, sharing the ball, which is BYU basketball right there."

VCU trimmed the deficit to as little as 10 until the waning moments, when Jackson's fourth triple cut the deficit to 75-66 with 55 seconds to go and finished out the 9-point loss.

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