NEW YORK CITY — The comeback Cougars just pulled off their craziest stunt to date, and in the most famous arena in the world, no less.
Trailing by 22 points in the second half in Tuesday night’s Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden against Clemson, No. 10 BYU did what it seemingly does best, orchestrating a late surge to storm back and capture an improbable 67-64 victory over the Tigers, with Rob Wright III’s game-winning, buzzer-beating 3-pointer serving as the decisive blow.
With 1.3 seconds left to play and the score knotted at 64 points apiece, Wright caught the inbounds pass from teammate Mihailo Boskovic and threw up a leaping 3-pointer between two defenders, swishing perfectly in the net and igniting an explosion of emotion from the several thousand BYU fans in attendance more than 2,000 miles east of Provo.
“I’ve never had a buzzer beater 3, so that was the first one,” Wright said. ”AJ (Dybantsa) wasn’t open, he was getting double-teamed. So I told him, ‘I’ll be coming back to the ball,’ and (Boskovic) just trusted me, passed it to me and then the shot went in. It’s a surreal feeling.”
BYU had gotten the ball back with about five seconds left, but after getting across half court, head coach Kevin Young didn’t like the look of Clemson’s coverage and elected to call timeout to scheme up a better look for a potential game-winner.
Long story short: it worked, clinching the largest second half comeback victory in program history.
“That play that we just ran at the end there is one we worked on in practice several times,” Young told reporters after the game. “Rob made a big-time play. Mihailo, he didn’t play (previously) in the second half. He comes in, I trust him as a passer, he made a great pass. Then Rob made it happen.”
But Wright’s heroics were just the cherry on top of a stellar second-half showing for BYU, who had gone into halftime immediately after surrendering a 21-0 Clemson run to trail 43-22 at intermission.
The Cougars completely flipped the switch in the latter frame, ending the night on a 45-21 stretch that was boosted by an early second half streak of 12 unanswered points. They shot 53.3% from the field over the final 20 minutes while holding Clemson to a 25.9% shooting mark over that same stretch, finally being able to match the Tigers’ intensity and energy after having initially appeared sluggish and sloppy.
“I thought the look in their eyes got different,” Young said. “I thought we were just kind of blank and just a little lifeless in the first half, honestly, so I challenged the guys (at halftime) just to come out with more of a competitive spirit.
“… I mean, that’s a big, strong, physical team. I thought our guys responded. I thought just our kind of trench warfare mentality was much better in the second half.”
When Clemson led by 22 points with just over 18 minutes left to play, ESPN Analytics gave the Tigers a win probability of 98.5%.
Jimmy V himself — Jim Valvano, the late, great NC State coach known for his famous “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up” speech given just weeks before his passing from cancer in 1993 — would be proud of how the Cougars followed such counsel to defy the odds in his self-titled showcase game.
“Unfortunately, we’ve been in this situation too many times this year. Our second half has been ridiculously efficient and effective. Although I wish that wasn’t the case, I think having reference points as you go throughout the season are really important,” Young said.
“… I give Clemson tons of credit. They had a good game plan to put us in mud, honestly, in the first half. We just couldn’t find the home offensively … In the first half, the ball wasn’t moving and forced our guys to take not good shots. I didn’t coach a good first half. In the second half, we found a much better rhythm and that had a lot to do with our offensive output. We scored 45 points in the second half. It was pretty impressive.”
The secret sauce to BYU’s refusal to surrender was AJ Dybantsa, the Cougars’ freshman phenom who shook off a slow start of his own to go nuclear in the second half in the first of what should be dozens of trips to the Big Apple over the course of his basketball career.
And even as a Boston kid, Dybantsa admitted to being in awe of playing on the famed MSG floor — who wouldn’t be?
“This is my first time stepping foot in (Madison Square) Garden. I’m from Boston, we have another Garden over there that I’m pretty much used to. This is like the Mecca. It was a surreal feeling to be able to play here,” Dybantsa said.
But Dybantsa’s performance appeared anything but starstruck. He scored 22 points after halftime — over that same stretch, Clemson scored 21 — while adding seven rebounds and five assists as part of a career-high 28 points on 9 of 17 shooting.
In the second half, Dybantsa scored or assisted on 34 of BYU’s 45 points, once again flexing his case to be the NBA’s top draft selection next summer for the whole world to see.
“One thing about AJ that he does a good job of, he really is a very fast processor,” Young said. “In the second half he made the needed adjustments where he could get to his spots a little bit more, and then the game kind of opened up from that standpoint.”
Added Dybantsa: “They decided not to double me in the second half, so I picked my spot smarter. Not trying to fade as much, just trying to raise above the defense.
“… (I tried to) just be patient. Don’t get too down on yourself if you’re missing shots in the first half. You’ve still got another 20 minutes to go. I’m super confident in my ability and I trust all the work I put in.”
Of BYU’s 67 points, 45 came from Dybantsa and Wright. Big man Keba Keita posted 10 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals, but his night will forever be remembered for causing a lengthy stoppage in play to repair a basket he damaged after a Shaquille O’Nealesque slam dunk.
Richie Saunders and Kennard Davis Jr. each added five points, but the pair shot a collective 4 of 20 from the field and 1 of 13 from long distance.
Additionally, the Cougars only had two bench points and shot 21.7% from 3-point range — though Wright made the one that mattered most, of course — with Dybantsa, Wright and Keba’s outings enough to overcome everything in BYU’s way.
The Cougars, now 8-1 and winners of five straight, will return to the Marriott Center Saturday for the first time in more than a month to face UC Riverside.
And they’ll do so with the swagger of a team that just hit a game-winner in “the Mecca of basketball.”
BYU guard Robert Wright III , left and forward AJ Dybantsa, right, reacts after defeating Clemson an NCAA basketball game, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in New York. | AP
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