{"id":63161,"date":"2025-11-28T02:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T02:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/63161\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T02:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T02:40:10","slug":"3-takeaways-from-byus-thanksgiving-win-over-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/63161\/","title":{"rendered":"3 takeaways from BYU\u2019s Thanksgiving win over Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

KISSIMMEE, Fla. \u2014 BYU just celebrated Thanksgiving with a victory.<\/p>\n

The Cougars rallied from a shaky start to take command in the second half against Miami, securing a 72-62 win Thursday in the ESPN Events Invitational at Walt Disney World in Florida.<\/p>\n

3 takeaways<\/p>\n

BYU came alive in the second half. The Cougars trailed by four points at intermission, having missed nine layups and struggling at times to contain the Hurricanes down low.<\/p>\n

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But similar to plenty of other outings under Kevin Young, BYU came out of halftime with strong adjustments to look like a completely different team.<\/p>\n

The Cougars opened the second half on a 30-12 run. After being tied at 37 points apiece, BYU then made 6 of its next 7 field goal attempts.<\/p>\n

Beginning with a go-ahead 3-pointer from Kennard Davis to make it a 42-40 ballgame, the Cougars went on a 10-0 run and didn\u2019t allow a single Miami bucket across a five-plus minute stretch.<\/p>\n

Though the Hurricanes did cut the deficit to seven points late, BYU\u2019s win was never truly in jeopardy following the long scoreless run for Miami.<\/p>\n

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It was a gutsy, grit-filled victory for the Cougars \u2014 one they\u2019ll likely need to replicate a few times in Big 12 play.<\/p>\n

Kennard Davis was a difference maker in his return. Back on the court following a 2-game suspension for violating team rules<\/a>, Davis enjoyed his finest performance as a Cougar to date.<\/p>\n

The junior swingman led all scorers with 18 points, adding five rebounds, an assist and finishing with a plus\/minus of +10 \u2014 the second best mark for BYU.<\/p>\n

Davis also shot 7 of 10 from the field and hit four catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, with one such make giving the Cougars a second half lead they would never relinquish.<\/p>\n

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Arguably BYU\u2019s top defender, Davis also excelled on that end of the floor and was a key piece to holding Miami scoreless for a five minute stretch in the second half.<\/p>\n

\"BYU<\/p>\n

BYU guard Kennard Davis Jr., left, steals the ball from Shelton Henderson (7) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, in Kissimmee, Fla. | Phelan M. Ebenhack<\/p>\n

BYU\u2019s defense delivered. Coming into Thursday, Miami was averaging 92.2 points per game on the season.<\/p>\n

Against the Cougars, the Hurricanes managed a season-worst 62 points. They ended up shooting 37.9% from the field, 22.7% from 3-point range and a shocking 41.2% from the foul line.<\/p>\n

Typically elite in transition, Miami was held to just seven fast break points. Though the Hurricanes did get 34 points in the paint, that number was 32% less than their average such output on the year.<\/p>\n

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Keba Keita swatted seven blocks, Rob Wright swiped three steals and BYU forced a total of 10 Miami turnovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KISSIMMEE, Fla. \u2014 BYU just celebrated Thanksgiving with a victory. The Cougars rallied from a shaky start to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10442,37948,37949,4899,28,37950,123,125,124,37951,37952,28559,22869],"class_list":["post-63161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-byu","tag-byu-mens-basketball","tag-cougars","tag-espn","tag-florida","tag-kennard-davis","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-ncaa-college-basketball-game","tag-richie-saunders","tag-the-cougars","tag-tre-donaldson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}