UConn holds off BYU comeback: AJ Dybantsa can’t complete Cougars rally

Few teams – perhaps no teams – have planned so aggressively for the non-conference portion of their schedule this season UConn.

After last season’s turbulent, high-profile failure — when the Huskies fell far short of becoming Final Four material, let alone winning a third straight league title — Dan Hurley leaned into the obstacles. It would have been understandable if the Huskies had only planned competitively.

But look what’s to come.

They planned as if to atone for bad behavior.

They played like that for the most part on Saturday night.

The six-pack of notable high-majors that Hurley’s third-ranked schedule has lined up over the next four weeks began on Saturday, with the highly hyped top-10 matchup against No. 7 BYU in Boston at TD Garden. No. 3 Connecticut won 86–84, avoiding a collapse after leading by as many as 20 points in the second half against a short-handed Cougars team that opened the game with one starter and quickly lost another.

What felt like a Connecticut runaway during the first 25 minutes of gameplay turned into a teeth-gritting save of a victory over a dangerous offense and one of the most talented players in college basketball, Cougars freshman AJ Dybantsa possible top pick in the NBA draft

BYU made UConn earn it in the final five minutes. Hurley doesn’t like finishing so close, but he can also take satisfaction in seeing this team pull off a win like that. His group last season blew a few games like this. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a victory.

It was different than how this probably would have gone a season ago.

Credit to Dybantsa, who scored 21 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, with more than half of those points being eyebrow-raising. Dybantsa played his first of what will be an untold number of games in one N.B.A uniform TD Garden. If he had brought BYU all the way back, it would have been the standout individual performance of the first two weeks of the season. Even if he doesn’t, it’s still encouraging for Dybantsa and BYU that he was able to transition with ease in the second half and be the catalyst for what would have been a remarkable comeback — especially against two starters.

Demary is the next man

BYU didn’t dress Kennard Davis Jr. in the aftermath of his arrest for charges of driving under the influence of a substance not yet revealed. A critical senior big man in the first half Keba Keita received a blow to the head Silas Demary Jr.thus eliminating him from the game.

Even without two of its top five players, BYU pulled itself back into a close game – and could have tied it or even won if not for Rob Wright III’s sixth turnover, which came with 12 seconds left when he lost the ball between his legs as BYU trailed 85-82. Dybantsa never got a chance to touch the ball with the match on the line.

Who was there to collect what was stolen when Wright coughed it up? Demarijn.

And he’s my biggest takeaway from Saturday night. Yes, even above Dybantsa’s highlight display on a losing effort.

For UConn to return to Final Four form this season, it will take a lot of things coming together. The role of Silas Demary Jr. on this team is critical to that goal. They need a guy like him to win a handful of games against really good teams.

We saw him for the first time on Saturday evening. We’ll see it several more times over the next four months.

At 6-foot-4, nearly 200 pounds and above-average strength for a combo guard, Demary has a player profile that UConn lacked last season. That Huskies team needed strength, size and game-over-game continuity in the backcourt. On Saturday, Demary provided the antidote. No doubt he probably made Hurley think to himself: Where was this last year?, like when he made a pair of shots (one a bunny with 3:15 left, the other a delicate mid-range fadeaway with 1:31 left) that increased UConn’s buffer from five to seven each time. Those four points were critical as BYU continued to chip away at the deficit.

His presence in both directions will ensure that this season won’t be the same as last season for Connecticut.

Demary finished with 21 points, seven assists and five rebounds. Alex Karaban And Tarris Reed Jr. also had 21 points each, but their skill and value are understood in that locker room and by the UConn fan base. (Reed was dealing with a hamstring injury that still hasn’t fully healed, according to Hurley’s post-match comments.) It can’t just be Karaban and Reed and Only Ballwho didn’t play a good game.

Who stepped up and made up for Ball’s foul-plagued night? Demarijn. He looks like a Dan Hurley player. When BYU sniffed blood, Demary didn’t swing the pendulum entirely in the Cougars’ favor.

A tough task for Huskies

So one major opponent down and five more to go in the next 27 days. Next up for Connecticut is another glitzy game, a matchup that has the potential to be the best we’ll get in November. Saturday was a top-10 affair, but what does the top-five sound like? Because that’s what we get on Wednesday in Gampel Pavilion, when No. 5 Arizona flies across the country to beat the Huskies. The Wildcats just retired No. 15 UCLA on Friday night in Los Angeles and it looks like an incredible test Koa Peaanother potential top-five pick in the frontcourt.

Another huge game in a loaded November slate for college basketball.

Another chance for UConn to show that last season was an aberration, that the Huskies once again have the pieces to match the best teams the sport has to offer.