The University of Arizona men’s basketball team (23-2, 10-2 in Big 12) is looking to bounce back against BYU (19-6, 7-5 in Big 12) on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. in McKale Center at ALKEME Arena. The Wildcats have suffered their first two losses of the season back to back against the University of Kansas and Texas Tech University. They will be looking to get back on their feet and defeat BYU for the second time this season.
There are only six games total remaining in the regular season, three of those being home games.
History vs BYU
Arizona and BYU have a long history, dating back to their first game during the 1951-1952 season where the Cougars won at home. They met back in January in Provo, Utah where the Wildcats took a close 86-83 victory.
Last season in February, BYU beat the Wildcats on their home court 96-95. This will be a very close matchup again in McKale Center.
BYU this season
BYU is coming into this game after a 90-86 home victory against the University of Colorado Boulder. Before this victory, they lost two consecutive games on the road. One of those was against No. 9 Kansas and the other was against Oklahoma State University.
The Cougars are led by freshman forward AJ Dybantsa. Dybantsa leads Big 12 in scoring with 609 points averaging 24.4 per game. This is over 100 points away from the runner up who has 468 points. Dybantsa is similar to Koa Peat and Brayden Burries being the star, versatile freshman forward who helps lead the team.
Arizona this season
The last couple of games have been tough for Arizona as they took their first loss of the season against Kansas on Feb. 9. They returned home to face No. 14 Texas Tech University later in the week where they took their second consecutive loss.
Burries still leads the Wildcats in scoring with 393 points averaging 15.7 per game. He is followed by Peat who has recorded 344 points averaging 13.8 per game.
Arizona is looking to bounce back from these two losses and get back in the winning column as they head into the last games of the regular season before they go to the Big 12 Tournament in March.
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