Kingston Flemings led four players in double figures to help No. 5 Houston pull away from BYU for a 73-66 win in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals Thursday in Kansas City.
Emanuel Sharp added 13 points, Joseph Tugler tallied 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds and Chris Cenac Jr. notched 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting for second-seeded Houston (27-5), which won its fourth straight game to return to the Big 12 semifinals for the third time in as many years in the league.
Freshman sensation AJ Dybantsa racked up a game-high 26 points — his 13th straight game with 20-plus points — and Robert Wright III scored 15 and a game-high five assists for 10th-seeded BYU (23-11).
After Wright scored three straight points to cut the deficit to 59-58 with 6:52 left, Houston put the game away with a 12-3 run to take the first double-digit lead of the game for either team at 71-61 with 20 seconds left.
Sharp iced the game with six free throws in the last 33 seconds, making up for a 1-for-9 performance from the floor with a 10-for-10 showing from the charity stripe.
Houston got off to a strong start, jumping out to an 8-2 advantage as BYU missed its first six shots from the floor. That edge continued through the opening 10 minutes as Houston led 19-12 with 9:50 left behind an 8-for-13 shooting start.
Trailing by eight with 7:37 left in the half, BYU finally came to life, breaking off a 7-0 run which began a larger 24-9 surge for a 41-34 lead with 28 seconds left in the half.
Dybantsa scored nine points during this surge — over half of his game-high 16 first-half points — and Aleksej Kostic hit back-to-back threes to turn a one-point deficit into a five-point lead.
Kalifa Sakho completed a three-point play in the final second to cut Houston’s halftime deficit to 41-37.
Houston opened the second half on a 10-5 run to reclaim the lead, and the Cougars jumped ahead for good on an 8-2 surge behind four points from Mercy Miller.
BYU made just one field goal over a span of 6:53 in the middle of the second half and managed just five made field goals over the final 14:14, missing 16 of their final 21 shots to finish 41.2% from the floor.
Houston wasn’t much better at 44.8% but made up for it with a 37-30 rebounding edge and a 19-10 advantage in second-chance points.
