Cougs Daily

BYU Pulls Off Insane Comeback Over Clemson, Wins it At the Buzzer

Casey Lundquist|
Dec 9, 2025; New York, New York, USA; BYU Cougars guard Robert Wright III (1) celebrates with his teammates after hiting a game winning three point shot to beat the Clemson Tigers 67-64 at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
Dec 9, 2025; New York, New York, USA; BYU Cougars guard Robert Wright III (1) celebrates with his teammates after hiting a game winning three point shot to beat the Clemson Tigers 67-64 at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images | Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

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BYU Cougars

What a game.

With 6:59 remaining in the first half, BYU and Clemson were tied at 22. Then the Tigers ripped off a 21-0 run. The Cougars, who couldn't get anything going offensively, trailed 43-22 after the first half.

The Tigers extended their lead to 22 in the opening minute of the second half.

Then BYU came to life. And more specifically, AJ Dybansta brought them back from the dead.

Dybansta was unbelievable in the second half. He finished with a career high 28 points, a career high 9 rebounds, and a career high 6 assists.

On a night where Richie Saunders didn't have his best stuff, Dybansta carried the Cougars in their comeback effort. Before the final minute of the game, Dybansta had scored or assisted 34 of BYU's 40 points in the second half.

Dybansta was scoring in the paint, hitting fall-away jumpers, distributing alley-oops, and putting Clemson defenders on posters. The Tigers threw everything they could at Dybansta on the defensive end and he had a counter for every Clemson action. When they doubled, he found the open shooter. When they left one defender on him, he managed to score. It was one of the most dominant performances by a BYU basketball player in years.

With just over a minute left, BYU led Clemson 60-56. AJ Dybansta got into the paint and dunked over a pair of Clemson defenders.

He also distributed a pair of alley-oops to Keba Keita in the clutch minutes of the game.

BYU had a 62-56 lead with just over a minute left. It looked like the game was all but over at that point. But Clemson had one more run left in them. The Tigers hit a pair of threes and made another field goal to tie the game at 64 with 5 seconds remaining.

The Cougars got the ball across half court and called a timeout with 1.3 seconds remaining. On the ensuing play, Mihailo Boskovic found Rob Wright who was 35 feet from the basket. Wright found space between two Clemson defenders, hitting the game-winner at the buzzer to give BYU the 67-74 win.

The final play was the perfect finish to a fantastic college basketball game. With the win, the Cougars improved to 8-1 after what was their final non-conference test. The Cougars will wrap up the non-conference slate with four consecutive home games against UC Riverside, Pacific, Abilene Christian, and Eastern Washington. Then they will tipoff the conference slate on the road at Kansas State.

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Casey Lundquist
CASEY LUNDQUIST

Casey Lundquist is the publisher and lead editor of Cougs Daily. He has covered BYU athletics for the last four years. During that time, he has published over 2,000 stories that have reached more than three million people.

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