When BYU lost senior Dawson Baker for the season on Thanksgiving Day, the team essentially issued an all-points bulletin searching for more bench points.
That search largely came up empty.
Almost all of BYU's offense since Baker went down has been generated by AJ Dybantsa, Robert Wright III, and Richie Saunders. And now with Saunders out for the season, the Cougars need for another scorer to emerge has gone from helpful to critical.
Over the last three games, freshman guard Alexsej Kostic has stepped up to fill the bench scoring void.
Outside of a 15-point explosion in a blowout against UC Riverside, Kostic hadn't scored more than six points in a game this season. But over BYU's last three games the freshman sharpshooter has scored 14, 12, and 14 points, respectively, as one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dark period for the Cougars.
Over those last three games versus UCF, West Virginia, and Cincinnati, Kostic has has gone 14-of-30 from the field (46.7%) while shooting an impressive 12-of-24 (50%) from the 3-point line, connecting on four shots from deep in each contest. He has played around 28 minutes per game during that stretch and is making the most of his late-season opportunity.
His scoring spree is more than surprising.
Excluding the UC Riverside game, Kostic had scored just 30 total points in the 18 other games in which he had appeared before his last three contests. Between December 19th and February 7th he appeared in nine games, playing 62 minutes and scoring just nine total points. I mean, he is so obscure I can't even find a picture of him in my editing platform to use in this article!
Even with the 40 points he has scored over his last three appearances, Kostic is averaging just 3.9 points per game. But somehow he has emerged as BYU's No. 3 scoring option behind Dybantsa and Wright, and some nights he has been the only option behind the Cougars "big two".
As Kostic prepares to close out his freshman campaign, he's now shotting 40.0% from the 3-point line on 60 attempts this season. That's positive. That's something to build on. Now, he has defensive deficiencies and can't initiate much offense beyond dialing up uncontested 3s, but that will come in time.
Of the many frustrations that are brooding over the 2025-26 BYU Cougars this year, freshman Alexsej Kostic's emergence as a long-range weapon is the one bright spot to pierce the clouds.