Even in a loaded Big 12, the star power of BYU basketball makes the Cougars a very tough out on any given night. AJ Dybantsa gets a lot of the headlines for his scoring prowess, but Richie Saunders is also an excellent scorer and can take the lead role on any given night.
Unfortunately, BYU will be without Saunders for the rest of the season after he suffered an injury during Saturday's overtime win over Colorado. The team announced on Sunday that Saunders has suffered an ACL injury.
Saunders was one of the leading scorers on a BYU team that relies primarily on three players to get a lot of its points. In 25 games this year, the standout senior is averaging 18 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. He is a lethal scorer from all levels of the floor, shooting just under 49% from the floor and 37.6% from the 3-point line.
BYU's offense struggled a bit without Saunders on Saturday against a Colorado team that has been very beatable to this point in the season. The Cougars needed overtime to get the win over a struggling Buffs squad, and it took an excellent 39-point effort from point guard Robert Wright III on 12-for-16 shooting to get them over the top. Dybantsa didn't have his best day, but he still got to 20 points to go with 13 rebounds and eight assists.
Wright and Dybantsa will have to do a lot of the heavy lifting for this BYU offense without Saunders, as they did on Saturday in the win. Dybantsa is one of the best scorers in all of college basketball, averaging 24.4 points per game to lead the entire country by more than a full point. The potential No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft can get it done from everywhere on the floor and is becoming more comfortable as a ball-handler as the season goes on, and his responsibility only grows with this news.
Wright can also fill it up when called upon, as he is averaging 18.7 points and nearly five assists per game. He saved the day for BYU against Colorado and now has 69 points in his last two games, so he is starting to play his best basketball at the right time for this now-shorthanded Cougars squad.
