Richie Saunders scored 29 points and grabbed eight rebounds to help No. 9 BYU earn an 83-79 win over Dayton in the ESPN Events Invitational championship in Kissimmee, Fla, on Friday.
Robert Wright III added 23 points and six assists while freshman AJ Dybantsa scored 18 for the Cougars (6-1), who overcame an 10-point, first-half deficit.
Javon Bennett led Dayton (6-2) with 22 points, followed by Bryce Heard’s career-high 16 points off the bench and Amael L’Etang’s 13. De’Shayne Montgomery totaled 11 points and eight rebounds in the loss.
Montgomery’s 3-pointer on Dayton’s first possession of the second half gave Dayton a 39-30 lead but BYU answered with a 15-0 run, capped by Keba Keita’s three-point play. Montgomery’s jumper stopped the bleeding, but Kennard Davis Jr.’s layup and Saunders’ five straight points extended the lead to 52-41. Saunders finished 6 of 10 from 3-point range.
After Dayon cut its deficit to five, Saunders’ reverse layup gave BYU a 67-60 lead with 7:04 left. A Heard layup then punctuated a 7-0 Dayton run to tie the game at 67 with four minutes remaining.
Wright and Heard then traded triples before Saunders’ four-point play gave the Cougars a 74-70 edge. The Flyers answered with L’Etang’s 3-pointer at the 2:11 mark.
Saunders then drilled his sixth 3-pointer and Dybantsa’s layup gave BYU a 79-73 lead. Heard responded with a 3-pointer to cut the Flyers’ deficit in half with 52 seconds left.
Dybantsa’s driving basket pushed the lead back to five with 18 seconds remaining. Bennett then hit two free throws before L’Etang rebounded Davis’ free-throw miss and was fouled with 3.5 seconds left. L’Etang split the pair,before Saunders made his two foul shots to seal the win.
Dayton jumped out to a 15-6 lead on Bennett’s first 3-pointer with 14:42 left in the first half. BYU answered with nine straight points, knotting the score at 15 on Saunders’ back-to-back 3-pointers.
Bennett then knocked down consecutive triples before a 7-1 BYU spurt tied the score at 22 at the 7:19 mark.
From there, Montgomery’s three-point play stamped a 14-4 run, as Dayton grabbed a 36-26 lead with 3:03 left. Wright and Saunders each knocked a pair of free throws, cutting the Cougars’ halftime deficit to six.
Bennett hit five 3-pointers and led all scorers with 17 first-half points while Wright paced BYU with 11.
