Dybantsa, Keita team up to push No. 8 BYU past Villanova in season opener

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• BYU's AJ Dybantsa scored 21 points in a 71-66 win over Villanova.
• Keba Keita contributed 8 points 7 rebounds 3 blocks and a steal.
• Villanova's Bryce Lindsay scored 22 points but BYU's defense secured the victory.

LAS VEGAS — If former No. 1 overall recruit AJ Dybantsa is the prized thoroughbred of the 2025-26 BYU men's basketball team and all its postseason expectations, then Keba Keita may be the pitbull guarding the stable.

The Cougars needed both in Monday night's season opener.

Dybantsa poured in 21 points, with six rebounds and three assists in his formal collegiate debut, and Keita added 8 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and a steal in his 102nd college game as the eighth-ranked Cougars held off Villanova 71-66 in a Hall of Fame Series Las Vegas game at T-Mobile Arena.

It's the 10th time in his collegiate career the former Utah transfer has had more than three blocks.

Richie Saunders finished with 15 points and seven rebounds, including a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. Robert Wright III added 14 points and three rebounds for the Cougars (1-0), who held the Wildcats to 34% shooting, including 10-of-35 from 3-point range.

Most of them came from a former sharpshooting Sun Belt transfer.

Bryce Lindsay scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half for Villanova, connecting on 5-of-9 3-pointers a season after flushing 87 for James Madison.

But for the second-straight game — if you count the Cougars' exhibition win over No. 25 North Carolina, which it doesn't (officially), BYU leaned on defense over offense. The once-cheeky named "3-Y-U" took just 17 3-point shots, and made just five of them that included 1-of-6 from deep in the second half.

The Cougars even each Villanova player not named Lindsay to 5-of-24 from 3-point range, and the Wildcats (0-1) shot just 37% from the field in the second half of an attempted comeback where they led for just 1:26.

"We've got some dogs in our locker room," BYU coach Kevin Young said. "I thought Keba was incredible, and I thought Kennard Davis was equally as physical defensively.

"I've said this to AJ ad nauseum, but I think he has the tools to be one of the best defenders in the country," the former Phoenix Suns associate head coach said. "We felt like we needed to take a step up defensively."

After trailing 42-32 at halftime, Villanova outscored BYU 18-9 in the first nine minutes of the second, including a 7-0 run to pull back within a single possession on Matt Hodge's layup with 10:55 to go.

Just over a minute later, Lindsay tied the game at 53-all with his third 3-pointer of the night. Lindsay did it again with 8:05 to go, giving Villanova its first lead 56-55 with 8:05 remaining.

It didn't last long.

Keita anchored a defense that held the Wildcats scoreless for more than four minutes down the stretch, and Dybantsa and Wright capped an 8-0 run to take a 67-59 lead inside of two minutes.

After shooting a perfect 3-of-3 in the first half and finishing 4-of-5 for the game, Keita was nearly everywhere: in the lane, on the glass, blocking shots and helping the Cougars bridge a 49-43 rebounding divide that made Young visibly upset.

But Saunders was a perfect 6-of-6 from the line, extending a free-throw streak to 29 consecutive makes dating back to the final game of the regular season last year, and Kennard Davis Jr. and Dawson Baker chipped in a few freebies, too.

And then there was Keita, who didn't get to the line but got just about everywhere else.

"It's crazy. I ain't never played with a shot blocker like that, how he's sending shots into the ninth row," Dybantsa said of the senior rim protector. "I ain't never seen that before. It gives us a lot of energy, and I'm almost going to start forcing guys to the paint and they can see if they can get to the rim on that."

Dybantsa, too, wasn't perfect; he'll be the first to admit it, and likely point to a 2-of-7 effort from the free-throw line for a BYU team that otherwise shot 14-of-21.

But for a true freshman with lofty expectations and highly public NBA goals? Not bad.

"I had one of those last year; they're fun," said Villanvoa coach Kevin Willard, who coached No. 13 overall pick Derik Queen a year ago at Maryland. "When you have a talented freshman like that's the first or second pick in the draft, which he is, he's one of the best high school players I've seen come out in a long time. He's got great size, great length, and he's much tougher for a kid his age.

"He's the real deal."

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Sean Walker

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KSL.com BYU and college sports reporter