BYU knocks off Portland 82-71 in second round of WCC tourney

Mar 4, 2023, 05:56 am

PARADISE, Nev. -- — Richie Saunders led BYU over Portland on Friday with 18 points off of the bench in an 82-71 victory in the second round of the West Coast Conference tournament.

BYU, seeded fifth, advances to the No. 4 seed, Loyola Marymount, in Saturday's quarterfinal round.

Saunders also contributed seven rebounds for the Cougars (17-14). Fousseyni Traore added 14 points while finishing 6 of 7 from the floor, and they also had nine rebounds. Jaxson Robinson recorded 14 points and shot 5 for 10, including 3 for 7 from beyond the arc.

Tyler Robertson led the Pilots (13-18) in scoring, finishing with 31 points, six assists and two steals. Kristian Sjolund added 14 points for Portland. In addition, Moses Wood had seven points and six rebounds.

Saunders scored 12 points in the first half and BYU went into halftime trailing 43-30. BYU used an 18-2 second-half run to come back from a 13-point deficit and take the lead at 48-45 with 15:24 left in the half before finishing off the victory. Robinson scored 14 second-half points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.