BYU Bounces Back, Gets Road Win at Missouri State

BYU bounced back after its first loss of the season in a 74-68 road win at Missouri State. Alex Barcello had 21 points, Te’Jon Lucas scored 17 and Spencer Johnson provided 14 points off the bench. With Gavin Baxter out for the year and Gideon George out sick, BYU went small most of the night and largely played either Caleb Lohner or Fousseyni Traore at the 5. Lohner scored 10 points and played well against MSU’s star big man Gaige Prim.

BYU’s poor three-point shooting continued — 6-23 from the arc — but BYU shot 48% overall and had only 9 turnovers. Missouri State came into the game with a potent offense, but BYU held the Bears to 41% shooting from the field.

Missouri State cut the lead to 3 points with under two minutes to go, but BYU got a couple big defensive plays from Seneca Knight and two big rebounds from Caleb Lohner on both sides of the floor. Te’Jon Lucas came up big during crunch time as well, hitting some big shots when Missouri State got some momentum and coming up with key passes.

BYU will fall from #12 in the AP Poll, but they should for sure stay in the rankings with this win. Missouri State falls to 4-4 with the loss, but they were ranked #74 in KenPom. BYU has two big games next week when they host Utah State Wednesday and travel to the midwest again for a neutral site game next Saturday versus Creighton.