Unbeaten no more.
BYU basketball suffered its first loss of the season in a 96-85 overtime heartbreaker to No. 23 Ole Miss Thursday in San Diego.
The Cougars, who are participating in the Rady Children’s Invitational tournament, will now face NC State Friday at 1:30 p.m. MST.
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3 takeaways
Overtime was ugly. BYU ran out of gas after the end of regulation, shooting 2-11 from the field and failing to find any sort of offensive rhythm. To make matters worse for the Cougars, Ole Miss went a perfect 13-13 from the free throw line in overtime — although some questionable officiating definitely helped make that possible.
BYU needs to improve defensively. The Cougars struggled to stay in front of driving Rebels, getting beat to the rim consistently throughout the contest and giving up 40 points in the paint. BYU was especially burned by Jaylen Murray, who posted a career-high 28 points on 10-14 shooting.
Egor Demin and Dallin Hall weren’t at their best. Demin still provided 16 points with four assists, but he shot just 2-9 from behind the arc, coughed up five turnovers and had just three points at halftime. In his second outing of the season, Hall did manage to dish out four assists, but he attempted just three shots across 29 minutes, never got to the free throw line and recorded a rough 140.5 defensive rating. With their two main ball handlers largely troubled, the Cougars committed 17 turnovers to gift Ole Miss 23 subsequent points.
