BYU Basketball blows 14-point lead, loses in OT to Illinois State

BYU built a 14-point second half lead, but inept half court offense and poor three point shooting cost the Cougars in a 92-89 overtime loss at Illinois State.

BYU looked in control after going up 52-38 at around the 16-minute mark in the second half, but an adjustment by Illinois State to go mainly zone stymied the Cougar offense. Poor three point shooting plagued BYU once again, as the Cougars shot 6-28 (21%) from deep. Free throw shooting also wasn’t in BYU’s favor, as the Redbirds shot 17-18 from the foul line while BYU shot 25-36.

Yoeli Childs and TJ Haws were the lone Cougars in double figures, as the duo finished with 27 and 22 points, respectively.

The OT performance particular stings for BYU, as ISU was without arguably its two best players for virtually all of overtime. BYU went up 89-88 in OT after falling behind quickly by 6, but they didn’t get a point for the remainder of the period.

BYU next travels to Ogden Saturday to face off versus Weber State.