AJ Dybantsa passes Kevin Durant for most points scored in a single Big 12 Tournament
BYU forward AJ Dybantsa (3) shoots during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Houston in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Conference tournament Thursday, March 12, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. Credit: AP/Charlie Riedel
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — AJ Dybantsa had a rough second-half, by his standards, but with a 3-pointer in the final seconds of BYU's 73-66 quarterfinal loss to No. 5 Houston, he passed Kevin Durant for most points scored in a single Big 12 Tournament.
Dybantsa finished with 26 points Thursday night, giving him 93 points in three games, one more than Durant scored in three games in 2007.
“Everybody knows he's my favorite player,” Dybantsa said of Durant. “So it feels good to just break his record.”
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, whose team focused much of its defensive attention on Dybantsa, said the 6-foot-9 guard has “the bucket gene.”
“(Dybantsa) can shoot. There’s a lot of shooters that can’t score. There’s a lot of guys who can really score, but they can’t shoot,” Sampson said. "If you watch the ball roll off his fingertips and his release of the free-throw line, you can tell he’s an elite shooter.
"He's going to get better.”
BYU coach Kevin Young had nothing but praise for his star player.
BYU forward AJ Dybantsa (3) shoots over Houston center Chris Cenac Jr. (5) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Conference tournament Thursday, March 12, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. Credit: AP/Charlie Riedel
“He can do everything on the court that you want a basketball player to do," Young said when asked about Dybantsa's second-half struggles. “I’m not trying to get snappy. I thought he played a great offensive game. He should have had 40 again.”
Dybantsa was 3 for 10 from the field in the second half, accounting for 10 points, but didn't go to the line in the second half.
“I’ll just cut to the chase, right out of the gate,” Young said in his opening comments. “They won the game. But AJ took 10 free throws, and he should have shot 20 free throws minimum in that game."
“I’m not saying the officials were like, ‘Oh, we’re going to give Houston calls and not BYU,' I’m not suggesting that in any form or fashion,” he said. "I thought they flat out missed calls, bottom line, and that led us to turnovers, led us to frustration.”
BYU awaits its seeding Sunday when the NCAA Tournament field is announced.
