Moments That Popped: No. 14 Kansas 90, No. 13 BYU 82

It was billed by many to be a showdown between fab freshmen Darryn Peterson and AJ Dybantsa.

And both certainly had their moments in this one.

But, in the end, it was 14th-ranked Kansas' ability to hold off a strong second-half charge by No. 13 BYU in a wild 90-82 victory at Allen Fieldhouse.

KU led by 21 at one point and 20 at halftime, after scoring 53 in the first half. But the Jayhawks went cold in the second half and BYU got hot, with the Cougars cutting the KU lead all the way to 4 with 1:27 remaining before a big bucket by Melvin Council Jr., ended a tough KU drought and helped the Jayhawks reach the finish line first.

Council finished with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists and four other Jayhawks scored in double figures, with Jamari McDowell missing double digits by a bucket.

Kansas needed every one of those points to extend its winning streak to five straight after a 1-2 start to Big 12 play.

Next up, KU (16-5 overall, 6-2 Big 12) will look to make it six wins in a row in conference play road clash at Texas Tech on Big Monday in Lubbock. Tipoff with the 11th-ranked Red Raiders is slated for 8 p.m. on ESPN.

Here's a look back at some of Saturday's action.

LIKES

• DP dialed in for a half - His career is full of big time games when BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa has been on the other side, and Saturday was another one. Right away. The talk all week — from other Jayhawks, not Darryn Peterson, who was not made available — was how this was a battle between Kansas and BYU and not the two talented freshmen. But there's little doubt that Dybantsa's presence on the floor inspired Peterson to bring it from the jump. You could see it in his energy. You could see it in his play. And you could really see it when Dybantsa wanted to check him. Didn't work. DP put up 9 points in the game's first 5 minutes, hitting a couple of tough shots in AJ's eye to bring the Allen Fieldhouse crowd into a frenzy. That was nothing compared to the way the building exploded when DP threw down a dunk over two Cougars late in the first half. He's a special talent, unlike pretty much anything we've seen at KU, but the cramping issues, which Self said he saw hitting Peterson at halftime, continue to be a thorn in the side of an incredible one-year career.

• Tiller's well-timed 3s & big night - On teh game's first possession, the Jayhawks tried to feed Bryson Tiller in the post. It's a move they've made a lot in recent games, and one that has done wonders for Tiller's game. Here's the thing, though. It hasn't changed his mind about liking to shoot 3-pointers. He loves 'em. He also just gets it. He understands — at least it seems — that KU wants and needs him to play bigger. So, in recent weeks, he's shown a willingness to do it. That's what makes his three first-half 3-pointers against BYU such a nice piece of the puzzle for Kansas. He didn't start there and work in. He started in, got his elbows dirty and then moved out. Proof positive that patience can both deliver and lead to both sides being happy — head coach and player. Tiller finished with a career-high 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting, with 7 rebounds in 38 minutes.

• Jamari McDowell's signature moment - If you haven't noticed by now, you will soon. In every Kansas win in the past month or so, there's been a moment when the opponent has closed the gap and made things a little tighter than Kansas might prefer. In so many of those times, KU guard Jamari McDowell has walked into a 3-pointer to reclaim control for Kansas. The same thing happened on Saturday, although, this time, it wasn't a 3-pointer. Darn close, though. With BYU trimming KU's lead from 21 to 14 early in the 2nd half, McDowell caught a pass on the wing and could've pulled the trigger. It probably would've gone in. Instead, he pumped, drove to get 2 feet in the paint and dished a casual pass to Tiller, who did the rest to get Kansas an easy 2. Two minutes later, the Jayhawks were back up 20 and the rout was once again on.

DISLIKES

• "Over-rated" chant - He didn't have his best game, but the chants from the KU student section toward Dybantsa that roared, "Over-rated" were a little much. The dude is not overrated. Not even a little bit. He's got everything you want in a basketball player and is still growing his game. He'll be a top 2 or 3 pick in this summer's draft and he'll continue to torture Big 12 teams the rest of the way. Perhaps even Kansas if the two meet again in the Big 12 tourney. Oh, by the way, after the chants, Dybantsa scored 5 straight points on 3 trips for the Cougars to help BYU cut the KU lead down to 13 with 11:18 to play. Dybantsa finished with 17 points in 34 minutes, turning in a solid second half after a quiet first half.

• DP sits... again – After a stellar first half (as noted above), KU's star freshman played just 3 minutes in the 2nd half after appearing to take himself out of the game early in the second frame and sitting on the bench with his thigh area wrapped on both legs. Self said after the game that it was cramps and that there is no rhyme or reason for why it happens some games (most) and doesn't others (Colorado). He also said he's still hopeful that they can get that figured out because, obviously, this team's ceiling is not quite as high without Peterson as it is with him. Self said, when whole, this team can play with anybody.

• Saunders goes off –You can just tell that a player like Richie Saunders loves to play in venues like Allen Fieldhouse and games like this one. And boy did he show it. He wasn't great in the first half but he played hard and battled. In the second half, the shots started falling and KU had no answer for him. Saunders scored 33 points, drawing praise from KU's players who tried to guard him and a tip of the cap from BYU coach Kevin Young as the best player on the floor in this one. "If someone can find a tougher competitor in the country, I'm all ears. I thought he played unbelievable," Young said after the loss.

WHAT THE?

• Jackson plays just 4 minutes - KU guard Elmarko Jackson banged knees with Dybantsa while getting called for a foul on the play and spent the rest of the game dealing with the injury. Self called it "nicked up" after the game and said he believed Jackson would be able to play on Monday night at Texas Tech. But it was still yet another bad break for the player who has been on an upward trend in recent weeks, becoming a key part of KU's rotation, both defensively and as a scorer. He's been through enough crap in his career already. He didn't need this. We'll see what it does to his game, availability and confidence moving forward. The guess here is that it won't impact it negatively in any way.

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