{"id":472880,"date":"2026-02-11T13:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/472880\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T13:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:14:08","slug":"robert-wright-iii-answers-baylor-boos-in-return-as-byu-ends-skid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/472880\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Wright III answers Baylor boos in return as BYU ends skid"},"content":{"rendered":"

WACO, Texas — Robert Wright III<\/a>, decked in BYU<\/a> blue rather than Baylor<\/a> gold, raised his arms near midcourt as the small but vocal contingent of traveling fans chanted his new school’s letters with the Cougars close to ending a four-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

The night began with boisterous boos during the pregame introduction of a player who backed out on a deal to return to the Bears for his sophomore season. It ended with his first career 30-point game in a 99-94 victory<\/a> Tuesday night as the 22nd-ranked Cougars stopped a skid that dropped them 13 spots in the AP Top 25.<\/p>\n

When Wright wasn’t being booed — which was nearly every time he touched the ball — the Baylor students chanted “traitor” several times. None of it was a surprise to the 20-year-old from Wilmington, Delaware, who is the Bears’ freshman record-holder for assists in a season and a game.<\/p>\n

“I remember when we played L.J. last year and what he got here, so I was kind of expecting that,” Wright said, referring to L.J. Cryer<\/a>‘s return to Waco with Houston<\/a> last season, when those Cougars hung on for a 65-61 win. “But I think I handled it pretty well.”<\/p>\n

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Wright’s 30 points came on 12-of-21 shooting, and he and freshman AJ Dybantsa<\/a>, a top NBA prospect, combined to make five consecutive shots as the Cougars (18-6, 6-5 Big 12) erased a 12-point deficit in the first half. Dybantsa had his fifth 30-point game, finishing with 36.<\/p>\n

Baylor trimmed a 17-point deficit with less than five minutes remaining to four in the last 26 seconds, but the Bears never had the ball with a chance to tie. When the Cougars were building their biggest lead, the boos for Wright had finally faded.<\/p>\n

Then came the “BYU” chants from the patches of blue throughout Foster Pavilion and the reaction from Wright while one of his teammates was shooting free throws.<\/p>\n

“I was just glad to have some people here on our side, just rooting for our team,” Wright said.<\/p>\n

The fifth loss in six Big 12 home games for Baylor (13-11, 3-9) was a freshman-sophomore showcase. Bears freshman Tounde Yessoufou<\/a> scored a season-high 37 points, and sophomore Cameron Carr<\/a> had 24. Carr made his first three 3-pointers to help Baylor to its 33-21 lead.<\/p>\n

The score was tied at halftime 41-41. Dybantsa and Yessoufou both had 18 points, while Wright and Carr had 15 each.<\/p>\n

“Someone would have to tell me when the last time in a Big 12 game three guys had over 30,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “There’s some high-level stuff going on with all three of them. I thought AJ was unreal.”<\/p>\n

Less than a week after calling out Oklahoma State<\/a> fans for a profane anti-Mormon chant<\/a> that led to a $50,000 fine for the school<\/a>, Young had to brace for whatever the reaction would be to Wright. He didn’t have to be asked what he thought of the Baylor crowd.<\/p>\n

“I actually have to give the Baylor fans credit,” Young said. “They kept it classy. You know they’re gonna go at him and it was in a way that was, I thought, good, good, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? And I thought the way Rob responded by having a tremendous game and helping us pull it out at the end was pretty cool.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WACO, Texas — Robert Wright III, decked in BYU blue rather than Baylor gold, raised his arms near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-472880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}