No. 8 Houston pulls away late to hand No. 16 BYU fourth straight loss, 77-66

Audio By Carbonatix

PROVO, Utah (AP) — Kingston Flemings scored 11 of his 19 points in the second half to help No. 8 Houston beat No. 16 BYU 77-66 on Saturday night.

Chris Cenac, Jr. added 16 points and Emanuel Sharp had 14 for Houston (21-2, 9-1 Big 12), which has won four in a row to stay within a game of No. 1 Arizona in the Big 12 standings. The Cougars shot 50% from the field after halftime.

AJ Dybantsa scored 28 points and Rob Wright III added 17 for the Cougars (17-6, 5-5), who dropped their fourth straight game.

BYU got Houston into the bonus quickly in the second half, but shot just 16 of 28 from the free-throw line.

Flemings made four baskets to power a 14-5 run that put Houston up 68-59 with 3:06 left. The visiting Cougars scored three second-chance baskets during the run to gradually pull away from BYU.

Houston used efficient offense and stifling interior defense to build a double-digit lead before halftime.

After Richie Saunders and Wright made back-to-back 3s to help pull BYU within one, Houston countered with a 9-0 spurt to extend its lead to 28-18. Flemings bookended the run with a pair of baskets.

Dybantsa bookended a run of four straight baskets and added four free throws to help BYU trim the deficit to single digits before halftime. His driving layup that sparked the run ended a scoring drought lasting 4:44 for the Cougars.

Back-to-back baskets from Wright capped a 14-4 run that put BYU up 51-48 early in the second half.

Houston: at Utah on Tuesday.

BYU: at Baylor on Tuesday.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball