West Virginia's Brenen Lorient (0) and BYU's Khadim Mboup (7) chase a loose ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the second round of the Big 12 Conference tournament Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

MORGANTOWN — It was another short stay in the Big 12 tournament for West Virginia. For WVU head coach Ross Hodge, his first game inside the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. will be one he may never discuss again.

Ugly play, ugly offense, poor free-throw shooting and a turnover-filled evening were the causes of another early checkout for the seventh-seeded Mountaineers, who fell to 10th-seeded BYU, 68-48, in the tournament’s second round.

It was the third consecutive season WVU (18-14) lost its first game of the Big 12 tournament.

“I thought they were the more physical team today,” Hodge said. “Obviously, we turned the ball over entirely too much. I felt pretty fortunate to just be down eight at the half, considering we had 14 turnovers.”

BYU freshman forward A.J. Dybantsa had his say, too, in eliminating the Mountaineers. A day after scoring 40 points against Kansas State, Dybantsa added 27 more on 11 of 24 shooting. He finished with just five less field goals than the entire WVU team.

“I think he’s the best player in college basketball,” BYU head coach Kevin Young said. “And I think he proves it every single night. This guy brings it on both ends of the floor.”

Dybantsa’s 67 points over the first two games is the most in Big 12 tournament history for a freshman in a two-game stretch, passing former Texas legend Kevin Durant.

It was a far cry from his performance in Morgantown just two weeks ago, when he was held to just four points in the first half of a 79-71 loss, in which he almost looked disinterested at times.

This time, he came out aggressive from the tip, scoring on tough drives to the basket and came up with one monster dunk in transition. He had 17 of his 27 in the first half and nearly went point-for-point with the Mountaineers, who trailed 31-23 at halftime.

“Just staying aggressive. Last time we were up in West Virginia, I think I was a little passive,” Dybantsa said. “Then they started sending me into double teams, and I was kind of riled up. So, I was just trying to stay aggressive and keep them on their toes.”

BYU (23-10) advanced to face No. 2 seed Houston in the Big 12 quarterfinals.

As for WVU, it was held to just 38% shooting (16 of 42), shot just 11 of 18 from the foul line and turned the ball over an amazing 22 times. That was clearly a season-high and the most turnovers by the Mountaineers since giving it up 23 times against Iowa State in 2024. WVU finished with six more turnovers than baskets.

Some of them were simply unforced, like Harlan Obioha getting whistled for two moving screens, Jasper Floyd’s pass sailing out of bounds after Honor Huff had tripped or Amir Jenkins having the ball go off his leg while he was dribbling.

At least one of them was forced. That one came in the final seconds of the first half, when Dybantsa stepped into the middle of a handoff from Brenen Lorient to Floyd. Dybantsa simply ripped the ball away, raced down the court and dunked it from the Big 12 logo just underneath the foul line.

The only good thing about the turnovers is at least WVU players spread the wealth around. Lorient finished with seven, the most by a WVU player in one game since 2023. Huff and Obioha each had four and Treysen Eaglestaff added three more.

“Turning the ball over 22times, you don’t give yourself much of a chance,” Hodge said. “But, you’ve got to give (BYU) a lot of credit for that. I just thought their physicality and intensity level was a lot higher.”

And even with all of that, WVU briefly had hope and trailed the Cougars, 43-40, with 9:37 remaining in the game. To some degree, that’s been the Mountaineers’ story for most of the season in Hodge’s first season.

So many times, the Mountaineers appeared down and out, only to make one final charge to get back into the game.

This time, though, BYU put a quick stop to that, as the Cougars held the Mountaineers to just eight points over the final nine minutes. During that time, WVU missed eight of 10 shots and turned the ball over four more times. WVU’s 48 points tied a season low.

Huff finished with three 3-pointers and a team-high 17 points. He’s now got 109 3-pointers on the season, eight behind Frank Young’s school record. Huff also has 401 career 3-pointers, which ties him for 30th on the all-time Division I list.

Lorient added 11 points and seven rebounds for WVU.

BYU got plenty of offense other than Dybantsa. Kennard Davis Jr. scored 20 points and went 5 of 6 from 3-point range. Rob Wright III added 11 points and six assists. All of BYU’s points came from just five players, who combined to shoot 46% overall (28 of 61).

WVU will miss out on the NCAA tournament for a third consecutive season.

It’s not yet known if Hodge and WVU have any interest in the College Basketball Crown tournament, but as the highest Big 12 tournament seed not participating in the NCAAs, WVU does have an automatic berth into that tournament.

That eight-team tournament is played in Las Vegas, with the catch being that players receive NIL payments for participating. The amount of money awarded to the players goes up if the team advances. The downside to the tournament is it doesn’t begin this season until April 1.

WVU turned down an invitation to the tournament last season, because it was in the process of losing then-head coach Darian DeVries to Indiana and a number of its players were entering the transfer portal.