No. 17 BYU pits its offense against No. 2 Houston, top defense

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- BYU showed its firepower in a 96-92 win over Iowa State in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals on Thursday.

But No. 17-ranked BYU (24-8) -- the fourth seed in the tournament -- could have more difficulty putting points on the board Friday night when it faces top-seeded Houston (28-4) in the first of two semifinal matchups.

Houston is No. 2 in the rankings in large part because of its defense, the best in the nation, giving up an average of 58.1 points per game. The Iowa State defense torched by BYU is No. 49.

In the only conference matchup between the teams this season, Houston defeated BYU 86-55 on Jan. 4.

Houston has won 11 straight games and BYU nine.

On Thursday, BYU shot 51.7 percent from the field against the No. 12-ranked Cyclones. More impressive than that, the Cougars connected on 50 percent of their 3-point attempts.

They didn't just go 1-of-2 or 2-of-4. The Cougars shot the long ball 36 times and made 18 -- a tournament record.

"That's a season high for us, 18 makes," coach Kevin Young said after the game. "I just told the guys in the locker room you don't just show up to the gym and go 18-of-36 from 3. It's not even just the shot making. It's how those 3s are generated.

"It's something that we pride ourselves on, in terms of spacing the floor, in terms of trying to turn a good shot into a great shot. Our guys have been that way all season. For them to do it under the bright lights against a defensive team that obviously that's their hallmark, that was a really good carry-over for us."

The challenge for BYU is doing it again, against a team that leads the nation in scoring defense.

Young said his team is different from the one that lost at Houston more than two months ago.

"We played them super early in our first Big 12 road game," Young said, recalling the game. "They smacked us. We've grown a lot since then. We've found more of our identity since that time. We just have to go out there and be the best version of ourselves."

Richie Saunders led BYU in scoring against Iowa State with 23. Trevin Knell was 4-for-4 from long distance.

Houston won its quarterfinal game against 16th-seeded Colorado 77-68 on Thursday, but it was anything but easy. The largest lead of the game for Houston was 14 points. Each time the Cougars started to pull away, the Buffaloes responded.

"When we get to this time of year, I think it's really important not to over-analyze anything," Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. "We can certainly play better, and I'm sure we will.

"It's called a win. I like that. We won. It's really important to win the game. That's what I liked. The way we played doesn't matter. We've got a game tomorrow, 6 o'clock (Central Time), and that's really all I care about."

BYU averages 81.8 points per game and is hitting 37.6 percent of its 3-pointers this season. Houston guard Milos Uzan said his team will be ready defensively.

"You want to take away the three," Uzan said. "That's what they're really good at. Coach Sampson is going to have a good game [Friday] for us. We've just got to follow through on it."

The Houston-BYU winner will meet the winner of the other semifinal Friday between No. 2 seed Texas Tech and No. 3 seed Arizona in the Big 12 tournament final on Saturday.

--David Smale, Field Level Media