{"id":260760,"date":"2025-11-04T09:47:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T09:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/260760\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T09:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T09:47:07","slug":"aj-dybantsa-scores-21-in-byu-debut-says-observing-aces-helped-prep-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/260760\/","title":{"rendered":"AJ Dybantsa scores 21 in BYU debut, says observing Aces helped prep"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS — Regarded as one of the nation’s top freshmen, BYU<\/a>‘s AJ Dybantsa<\/a> already had a pretty good idea of the energy basketball fans in Las Vegas provide as he prepared for his collegiate debut.<\/p>\n

It was over the summer when Dybantsa sat in the front row near center court to see the Las Vegas Aces<\/a> and felt the vibe at Michelob Ultra Arena inside Mandalay Bay, during what turned out to be the team’s third WNBA championship campaign in four years.<\/p>\n

Dybantsa, 18, created his own electricity up the street Monday night in front of more than 16,000 fans inside T-Mobile Arena — a majority of whom wore BYU blue — as he finished with 21 points and six rebounds to lead the eighth-ranked Cougars to a 71-66 win<\/a> over Villanova<\/a> in the Hall of Fame Series.<\/p>\n

“I knew that the Aces have a huge fan base, so I wasn’t really actually expecting it to be like what it was, but they show great support, and I love Vegas for that,” Dybantsa said. “We have BYU fans everywhere, and they show support. It was damn near a home game for us, the amount of fans that were there. So, I’m just very grateful for the fans and the Mormon community to show support.”<\/p>\n

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Dybantsa, who did much of his damage in the second half by scoring 13 points to help fend off Villanova’s late surge, including six points during a 10-0 BYU run that erased a two-point deficit and gave the Cougars a 67-59 lead with 1:50 left.<\/p>\n

“He’s one of the best high school players I’ve seen come out in a long time,” Villanova coach Kevin Willard said. “He’s the real deal.”<\/p>\n

Taking over a game is nothing new for Dybantsa, who was named MVP of the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup after leading Team USA to a gold medal in Switzerland in July.<\/p>\n

“USA always helps,” said Dybantsa, who added that enrolling at BYU in April benefited him, as he became familiar with his future teammates. “You’ve got to find a role, the practices are super competitive, [so] it definitely helped.”<\/p>\n

The Boston-area native said watching and talking to WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson<\/a>, NaLyssa Smith<\/a> and coach Becky Hammon also helped him appreciate a different perspective.<\/p>\n

“I’m trying to get more on the WNBA side, definitely,” Dybantsa said. “I mean, they got a lot of talent. A’ja, doing what she’s doing. Just trying to tap in a little bit, get as much knowledge.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS — Regarded as one of the nation’s top freshmen, BYU‘s AJ Dybantsa already had a pretty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-260760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}