No. 19 BYU Stunned By UCF In Wire-To-Wire Defeat
Feb 24, 2026, 11:46 PM | Updated: Feb 25, 2026, 9:53 am
PROVO, Utah – Days after a breakthrough victory, BYU basketball suffered a shocking loss at home against UCF.
No. 19 BYU fell to UCF, 97-84, at the Marriott Center.
Final: UCF 97, (19) BYU 84
Dominant performance by UCF. Wire-to-wire victory. pic.twitter.com/lOEsdJnRd3
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) February 25, 2026
BYU never led on its home floor in a wire-to-wire loss to a Knights squad that clinched its 20th win of the season.
The victory for UCF potentially punched their ticket to an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.
BYU was a double-digit favorite over UCF, and the Knights were without their top scorer in Riley Kugel, who remained sidelined with an undisclosed injury.
AJ Dybantsa finished with 29 points, but 12 of those points came in the final three minutes of the game.
Themus Fulks and Jordan Burks led the way for UCF with 24 points each. Fulks also dished out 11 assists.
Burks was 9-of-12 from the field in the game.
BYU falls to 20-8 overall and 8-7 in Big 12 play.
UCF moves in front of BYU in the league standings at 9-6.
First Half
Under-16: UCF 14, BYU 4
Slow starts returned for BYU on Tuesday night. UCF jumped all over BYU with six fastbreak points, forcing Kevin Young to call a timeout before the under-16 media timeout.
Under-12: UCF 27, BYU 16
UCF built up its lead to 25-10 after Jordan Burks knocked down his first three 3-point attempts.
BYU got it back to single-digits after an Aleksej Kostic hit a three, following a difficult offensive rebound from Rob Wright III against the UCF bigs.
Still, BYU made some mistakes, resulting in a pair of turnovers by Ahmed due to offensive fouls.
Under-8: UCF 35, BYU 21
Kevin Young gave AJ Dybantsa a break coming out of the under-12 timeout for two-and-a-half minutes, which carried into the under-eight timeout.
During that stretch, BYU was minus-three and gave up an and-one to Jamichael Stillwell.
Under-4: UCF 47, BYU 25
UCF guard Themus Fulks buried a three-pointer and hit a bucket with a defender on his back in the paint to help build the Knights’ lead to 22 points.
BYU’s offense is struggling to get AJ Dybantsa shots. UCF is forcing BYU to turn to Kennard Davis or Aleksej Kostic.
Davis and Kostic combined for 11 of BYU’s 29 field goal attempts.
Halftime: UCF 52, BYU 28
The largest halftime deficit of the season for BYU. UCF knocked down 11-of-16 from three-point range and shot 57% from the field in the first half.
The Knights also outscored BYU 12 to zero in the first half.
Brutal first half for BYU on their home floor.
Second Half
Under-16: UCF 64, BYU 33
UCF popped off a 12-0 run to open the second half, building up the lead to 36 points.
Unlike the first half, this time UCF was feasting on BYU in the paint. BYU had no answer, particularly against John Bol, who had six consecutive points to open the half.
BYU didn’t score its first points in the second half until the 16:23 mark when Rob Wright III hit a three.
Under-12: UCF 74, BYU 42
All UCF and BYU fans began making their way to the exit.
BYU legend and Los Angeles Rams star Puka Nacua was shown on the big screen sitting in the Hollywood seats next to Ryan Smith, and he let out a “Go Cougs, baby,” but it didn’t land well with fans when BYU was down by more than 30 points.
Under-8: UCF 81, BYU 53
The crowd that remains is silent at the Marriott Center as they watch BYU get hammered by a UCF team without its leading scorer. You could hear the squeaks on the floor as players went through their sets.
Anytime that BYU looked to get a little momentum with a bucket to try and spark something, they couldn’t get a stop.
Themus Fulks reached 18 points, and Jordan Burks had another 18.
Under-4: UCF 85, BYU 65
BYU won’t go down easily. Tyler Mrus has given some good minutes and gotten his hands in the passing lanes.
Still, the story is UCF, which remains the more physical team.
That was highlighted when UCF’s Jordan Burks missed two free throws. BYU fans cheered loudly because it meant free Chick-fil-A. Meanwhile, UCF went to work on the glass and got an offensive board, which eventually led to an alley-oop slam dunk.
FINAL: UCF 97, BYU 84
Next up for BYU is a road trip to West Virginia on Saturday afternoon in Morgantown. Tip-off against the Mountaineers is at 3:30 p.m. (MST) on FOX 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.
