Recap: Dybantsa, BYU muscle a smothering home win over Pacific from the WCC

Basketball is a beautiful sport; there are many reasons why it's become so popular worldwide. The ball movement, high-flying slams, long-range jump shots, savage rejections, and so much more. What happened in the first half of BYU vs Pacific was enough to make me question the definition of basketball -- specifically, whether this contest qualifies.

Hideous offense on both ends left the scoreboard largely barren for most of the opening stretch. With 14:10 remaining in the first half, the visitors from the WCC finally broke onto the scoreboard. The full score read 6-2. My eyes will never be the same.

Kevin Young described the Cougars' offensive efforts as "suspect" during the halftime break, and I'm inclined to agree as the team hit just 39% from the field and 20% from distance. If the Cougars were suspect, though, the Tigers were downright criminal, connecting on 0% of their 11 three-point attempts and just 33% from the field overall. All this while coughing up 12 giveaways in the first 20.

Despite all this, BYU led by 21 at half with a score of 41-20, led by AJ Dybantsa's 14 points and Richie Saunders' 11 points with 5 steals. Rob Wright's 4 takeaways shouldn't be ignored either, doing incredible damage by the halftime point.

Welcome, Tyler Mrus, doing his best impression of the absent Aleksej Kostic and knocking through both of his attempts from long range during the first half. This heat wave was a much-needed confidence boost for the Idaho transfer, who had struggled to find his footing as a three-point specialist to this point in the season, having only made three shots all year prior to tip-off. He finished unblemished from range, with 15 points on 4-4 shooting. An absolute heater.

After the halftime break, however, this basketball game didn't clean up in the slightest. In just five minutes, Pacific narrowed the lead to 9 on a 12-0 run. Cold shooting and a scoreless stretch gave the Tigers life, and out of nowhere, a seemingly insurmountable advantage was sliced to single digits.

But the Cougars reclaimed control, answering with an 13-0 run of their own and pushing the lead back above 20. The crowd began to buzz every time Rob Wright put his head down to drive. Twirling and dodging defenders, the Cougars' point guard began reaching the rim with ease, and the offensive engine finally found life.

Pacific's comeback machine ran out of steam, and with the perceived weakness, BYU doubled down and drove this contest out of reach. Wright especially took off ini the second half, piling on 22 total points and leading the charge as the Cougars extended the lead beyond 30.

Richie Saunders is back to his old ways, knocking through 75% of his attempts from distance, rivaled only by Mrus' four conversions. Saunders was a pest on the defensive end -- a scourge on the Tigers' offensive efforts -- illustrated best by his five steals.

AJ Dybantsa finished with a 23-point, 10-rebound double-double, punctuated by a steal and a breakaway windmill yam in the final minutes of the second half. Knocking through midrange jumpers, heaps of free throws.

BYU's Big Three of Dybantsa, Saunders, and Wright combined for 69 of the team's total of 93. The question of bench production still lingers, however, as Mrus was the only bench player to score before Coach Young pulled the starters at the tail end of the evening. All the same, in such an ugly game, BYU will be happy to leave with a 36-point victory, 93-57.

The 10th-ranked Cougars improve to 10-1 on the season and have won 24 straight non-conference games in the Marriott Center. Their next game will be against