March 12, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; BYU Cougars forward AJ Divancha (3) protects the ball from Houston Cougars guard Milos Uzan (7) during the second half at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Image Kingston Flemings led four players in double figures to help No. 5 Houston to a 73-66 win at BYU in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals Thursday in Kansas City.
Emanuel Sharp added 13 points, Joseph Tugler had 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds and Chris Cenak Jr. had 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting for second-seeded Houston (27-5), which has won four straight for the third time in as many years in the league and is back in the Big 12 semifinals.
Freshman sensation AJ Dybantsa had a game-high 26 points for his 13th straight game of 20, while Robert Wright III had 15 points and a game-high five assists for 10th-seeded BYU (23-11).
After Wright scored three straight to cut the deficit to 59-58 with 6:52 left, Houston went on a 12-3 run to give both teams their first double-digit lead of the game at 71-61 with 20 seconds left.
Sharp iced the game with six free throws in the last 33 seconds and made up for his 1-for-9 shooting from the floor by going 10-for-10 from the charity stripe.
Houston got off to a strong start, taking an 8-2 lead when BYU missed its first six shots from the floor. That advantage continued through the opening 10 minutes as Houston led 19-12 and went 8-for-13 with 9:50 to play.
Trailing by eight with 7:37 left in the first half, BYU finally came back to life, breaking a 7-0 run that started an even bigger 24-9 surge for a 41-34 lead with 28 seconds left in the first half.
Divancha scored nine points, more than half of his first-half high of 16 points, and Alexei Kostic hit three consecutive hits to turn a one-point deficit into a five-point lead.
Kalifa Sakho completed a 3-point play in the final minute to cut Houston’s halftime deficit to 41-37.
Houston opened the second half on a 10-5 run to regain the lead, and the Cougars surged ahead 8-2 behind four points from Mercy Miller.
BYU made just one field goal in the final 6:53 of the second half and just five field goals in the final 14 minutes, 14 seconds, missing 16 of its last 21 shots and shooting 41.2% from the floor.
Houston wasn’t much better at 44.8 percent, but made up for it with a 37-30 rebounding edge and a 19-10 advantage in second-chance points.
–Field level media
