On Saturday night, the BYU basketball program hosted West Virginia in front of a sellout crowd. After an ugly first half in which BYU scored only 25 points, the Cougars scored 52 points in the second half on their way to a 77-56 victory.

The BYU bench was the headline of this game. The BYU bench outscored the WVU bench 43-16. Fousseyni Traore came off the bench and led all scorers with 20 points on 9/13 shooting. Traore finished with a double-double, adding 10 rebounds as well.

The game turned in BYU’s favor near the end of the first half. BYU trailed West Virginia 19-15 before going on a 10-0 run to end the first half and taking a 25-19 lead into the break.

It was Egor Demin and Richie Saunders that broke the seal on offense to start the second half. Demin hit the first three of the game for BYU in the early minutes of the second half. Demin finished with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Kevin Young’s counter to the offensive woes in the first half was to feed Richie Saunders the basketball in the second half. It worked. Saunders setup the Demin three and he had multiple field goals to extend BYU’s lead. Saunders finished with 13 points and just 25 minutes played. Saunders sat for a large portion of the second half after BYU pulled away.

The offensive explosion led to a 20-point BYU lead midway through the second half.

With the win, BYU maintains the tie with Iowa State for fourth place in the Big 12 standings. BYU takes on Iowa State in Ames on Tuesday night.