No. 23 BYU Misses Signature Win Opportunity, Falls At No. 4 Arizona

In the first game of the season without Richie Saunders, BYU basketball lost at Arizona, 75-68.

No. 23 BYU falls to 1-6 against AP Top 25 opponents this season. It’s the first time since 1999 that Arizona has defeated BYU in Tucson.

Final: (4) Arizona 75, (23) BYU 68

AJ Dybantsa scores 35 points.

BYU falls to 7-6 in Big 12 play.

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) February 19, 2026

No. 4 Arizona was led by senior Anthony Dell’Orso, who came off the bench to score a season-high 22 points.

BYU freshman star AJ Dybantsa led all scorers with 35 points on 13-of-28 shooting from the field. Dybantsa also grabbed seven rebounds.

Rob Wright III scored 13 points, and Kennard Davis Jr. chipped in 10 points to round out the double-figure scorers for BYU.

First Half

Under-16: BYU 10, Arizona 8

For the first time this season, BYU had a lead in a road Big 12 game at the first media timeout.

Keba Keita and Arizona’s Sidi Gueye showed some intensity before the break, holding on to a jump ball and not letting go of the ball.

Under-12: BYU 14, Arizona 12

BYU got some production on the offensive end from Aleksej Kostic and Khadim Mboup with a pair of buckets.

Then, Tyler Mrus was doing a nice job on help defense to double-team Arizona’s bigs.

Under-8: BYU 23, Arizona 23

Kennard Davis Jr. drove to the basket, dished out to AJ Dybantsa at the three-point line, then Dybantsa made an extra pass to wide-open Rob Wright for a three.

It was good spacing and ball movement, a reminder of last year’s offensive attack.

Under-4: Arizona 31, BYU 29

BYU turned to a lineup that included Dominique Diomande. They were lining up in a 2-3 zone, forcing Arizona to take threes, and the Wildcats started to make BYU pay.

Ivan Kharchenkov and Brayden Burries both knocked down 3-pointers.

End of first half: Arizona 42, BYU 35

Arizona’s Anthony Dell’Orso knocked down two 3-pointers in the final minute, including a buzzer-beater, to give the Wildcats a game-high seven-point lead at the break.

Dell’Orso led Arizona in scoring with 15 points.

The Wildcats knocked down six 3’s in the half. By comparison, BYU was 2-of-9 from beyond the arc.

AJ Dybantsa led all scorers with 16 points.

Second Half

Under-16: Arizona 53, BYU 43

Arizona started to chip away at the offensive glass against BYU’s “two bigs” lineup with Keba Keita and Abdullah Ahmed.

Under-12: Arizona 59, BYU 46

Anthony Dell’Orso went coast to coast after gathering possession for a slam dunk. Despite having two defenders in Rob Wright and Aleksej Kostic, neither player picked up Dell’Orso, resulting in an easy dunk.

Arizona was starting to pull away.

Under-8: Arizona 63, BYU 50

For BYU, it was the AJ Dybantsa show, and not much else. Dybantsa became the school’s all-time leading scorer in a freshman season, passing Danny Ainge.

Between Dybantsa and Rob Wright III, the dynamic duo had 40 of BYU’s 50 points.

Under-4: Arizona 69, BYU 58

Dell’Orso tied his season-high for scoring with 20 points after knocking down another three. It’s the most points he’s scored in a Big 12 game this season. His previous high was 17 points against TCU on January 10.

AJ Dybantsa scored 14 consecutive points for BYU before Kennard Davis knocked down a three to cut Arizona’s deficit to 11.

Final: Arizona 75, BYU 68

With 1:45 to go, BYU coach Kevin Young challenged an out-of-bounds call by the officials that stated possession was in favor of Arizona. During the replay, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas felt the call would be overturned because the ball appeared to have gone off Arizona’s Jaden Bradley.

Instead of overturning the call, refs said there wasn’t conclusive evidence, so possession remained with Arizona. That allowed Arizona to run down more clock.

As they did in January, BYU did everything they could until the final whistle to make it interesting against Arizona. BYU trimmed the deficit down to five points.

Rob Wright had the ball, and Motiejus Krivas stripped him. Jaden Bradley then gathered the ball and found an open Anthony Dell’Orso for a wide-open slam dunk.

That sealed it for Arizona, ending the Wildcats’ two-game losing streak.

BYU drops to 7-6 in Big 12 play and 19-7 overall. They are now 1-6 against AP Top 25 opponents this season.

Next up for BYU is another Top 25 opponent, as they host No. 6 Iowa State at 8:30 p.m. (MST) on ESPN and KSL NewsRadio.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast daily on KSL Sports YouTube and KSL NewsRadio (SUBSCRIBE). Harper also co-hosts Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL NewsRadio.

Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU athletics in the Big 12 Conference on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram: @Mitch_Harper.

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