No. 10 BYU has depth on its side vs. Abilene Christian

No. 10 BYU has depth on its side vs. Abilene Christian

No. 10 BYU has depth on its side vs. Abilene Christian

Bench production is giving No. 10 BYU a much-needed boost on offense.

The Cougars (10-1) head into their game against Abilene Christian in Provo, Utah, on Friday night after their reserves have averaged 28 points over the last two contests.

BYU opened a current four-game homestand with a 100-53 victory Saturday over UC Riverside in a matchup that featured breakout games from bench players Aleksej Kostic and Khadim Mboup.

Kostic made five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 15 points, and Mboup had his first career double-double, finishing with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

With an illness sidelining Kostic in a 93-57 victory over Pacific on Tuesday, Tyler Mrus, an Idaho transfer, finished with a season-high 15 points off the bench after going 4 of 4 from 3-point range. He had converted just 3 of 21 shots from 3-point territory in his first 10 games for BYU, which has won seven straight contests.

"If (Kostic and Mrus) can come in and be those types of (bench) shooters, which they can be, and we know they are, which is why they're here, you know, that's gonna open up a lot of things for everybody else," BYU coach Kevin Young told the Deseret News on Tuesday.

It certainly will make BYU's high-scoring trio of AJ Dybantsa, Richie Saunders and Rob Wright III even more difficult to defend.

Each player scored at least 20 points against Pacific. For Dybantsa, who finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds, it marked his fourth straight 20-point game. He's the first player to achieve that feat for the Cougars since Tyler Haws in 2015.

While Dybantsa's scoring prowess is well-established, grabbing a career-high 10 rebounds offered a sneak preview to him perhaps unlocking another dimension to his already dynamic game.

"Coach has been on my head that I should be averaging around 10 rebounds with my athleticism," Dybantsa told the Deseret News. "I think I've been stuck at like six to eight for a couple games, so I just tried to be more active on the boards."

Abilene Christian (7-4) will face its second straight top-10 opponent after falling to No. 1 Arizona 96-62 on Tuesday. Arizona led the entire game while having six players score in double figures.

Abilene Christian trailed 51-31 at halftime after committing 16 team fouls in the first half. Arizona took full advantage, going 19 of 25 from the free-throw line over the first 20 minutes. The nation's top-ranked team also outscored Abilene Christian 44-22 in the paint.

Cbo Newton was a bright spot for the Wildcats, scoring 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. Bradyn Hubbard had nine points but a team-high three turnovers in 25 minutes off the bench after scoring 16 points as a starter but going only 4 for 16 from the field in a 77-69 win over New Mexico State on Dec. 6 in the team's previous game.

"He gets fatigued, and then he makes bad decisions," Abilene Christian coach Brette Tanner said after the latter game of Hubbard, who averages a team-high 15.7 points per game. "He's either got to get out of the game, or he's got to be able to fight through some of that fatigue. That's the next step for him from being a good player to being an elite-level player."

--Field Level Media