Richie Saunders’ career day powers BYU by Arizona State in Big 12 opener

PROVO — Richie Saunders wasted little time making an impact in BYU’s Big 12 opener Tuesday afternoon at the Marriott Center.

Richie “One Speed” didn’t slow down, either.

Saunders poured in a career-high 30 points, including six 3-pointers, to go along with six rebounds, a block and a steal as the Cougars cruised past Arizona State 76-56 in front of 16,926 fans.

Kanon Catchings added 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting for the Cougars (10-2, 1-0 Big 12) and Egor Demin had 4 points, four rebounds and seven assists in his return from a knee injury.

Keba Keita had 9 points and 10 rebounds, and Dawson Baker chipped in 9 points and five assists off the bench for BYU, which scored 19 points off 13 turnovers and outrebounded the Sun Devils 38-28.

“Sometimes it’s like that. That’s what happens on a team,” Saunders said after the game. “Today might have been my night on the offensive stuff, but that’s just kind of how it is. Sometimes it’s your day, sometimes it just goes down the line.

“We really worked hard on getting paint shots and paint kick outs. I was fortunate to be on the kick-out version of that.”

BJ Freeman had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists to lead Arizona State (9-3, 0-1 Big 12), which shot just 36.8% from the field and 6-of-29 from 3-point range — well below their 38% 3-point shooting average.

“This was our worst offensive game of the season, by far,” said ASU coach Bobby Hurley, who was awarded a technical foul for arguing with the officiating crew. “I’m sure BYU had a lot to do with that today.”

Give plenty of credit to BYU’s defense, which also kept leading scorers Joson Sanon and Jayden Quaintance to a combined 16 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including 0-for-5 from 3-point range.

“It was a little bit of a focus, but also some of us knowing that’s the Big 12; the refs don’t really call much, so you’ve got to fight through.”

Still, Tuesday’s New Year’s Eve matinee belonged to Saunders, who missed most of the past two games in concussion protocol before being cleared to return the morning of Christmas Eve.

“He’s a stud. I’ve said it from day one: he’s a flat-out stud,” BYU coach Kevin Young said of Saunders. “The thing I love about him is how hard he plays, and how you don’t have to run stuff for him to get shots. We do run some things for him from time to time, but he’s very opportunistic, looking to be aggressive, and I think he takes good shots and puts a ton of pressure on the defense. He was a catalyst for us.”

Saunders put BYU ahead from the start, knocking down his first 3-pointer just 53 seconds in and never taking his foot off the gas.

The junior from Riverton by way of Wasatch Academy scored 8 of the Cougars’ first 11 points, outscored the Sun Devils 13-4 in the first six minutes, and drained 4-of-5 from the field including three 3-pointers to go with four rebounds in the first eight minutes of his first start since leaving the Cougars’ Dec. 14 game against Wyoming at Delta Center with a head injury.

Just as impressive as Saunders was BYU’s first-half defense. The Cougars held Arizona State scoreless on their first eight attempts from 3-point range, in a 10-of-31 shooting performance overall that included 2-of-15 from deep.

Joson Sanon paced a 6-0 run to end the half as Arizona State held BYU scoreless for the final 2:10 to pull within 31-26 at the break.

But BYU opened the half on a 7-0 spurt and Demin capped a 13-4 start to the half with steal and fast-break dunk to push the Cougars’ lead to 44-30 with 15:26 remaining. Saunders stretched the lead to 50-32 two minutes later with a reverse lay-in finish from Demin — and the Sun Devils never threatened again.

BYU continues Big 12 play Saturday against No. 14 Houston in just the second true road game of the year for the Cougars. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. MST on ESPN+.