How BYU basketball beat UC Riverside – Deseret News

Kevin Young's Cougars are 2-0.

Strong performances from Egor Demin, Fouss Traore and Keba Keita helped BYU beat UC Riverside on Friday night in an 86-80 game that was much closer than originally expected.

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• Egor Demin should keep BYU competitive all season long regardless of the circumstances. The freshman phenom from Russia followed his electrifying debut Friday night with 20 points and seven assists and continued to turn heads across the country as one of the sport's newest breakout stars. As shown against the Highlanders, Demin can influence the game in many ways and will therefore be difficult to silence completely.
• Shootings plagued the Cougarswho made just six 3-pointers in Tuesday's season opener against Central Arkansas after making 15 such shots. Additionally, BYU missed a total of 12 free throws, which helped make the final result seem a little less attractive.
• While the shots from outside were not fired, The Cougars' inside game proved to be strongas they scored 48 points in the game and grabbed 11 offensive rebounds. Keita posted his first double-double at BYU with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Traore added another 13 points and six boards off the bench.