Catchings fire: 4-star freshman lights out in BYU basketball’s exhibition win

PROVO — (KSL.com) For a true freshman playing in his first (unofficial) college basketball game, Kanon Catchings looked like a savvy veteran.

The 6-foot-9 four-star recruit, who spent last season with Overtime Elite, poured in 19 points with four rebounds; and Richie Saunders added 15 points, five boards, a block and a steal as BYU cruised to a 93-49 win over Division II Colorado Christian in front of an announced crowd of 16,323 fans Wednesday night at the Marriott Center.

And the freshman played fast, too — which suits his style, he said.

“Just get everybody running,” Catchings said. “We have a pretty deep team, so if somebody gets tired, we can bring them off the bench for somebody else. It’s good to have a deep team because you can play up-tempo.”

Catchings shot 8-of-10 from the field, including 2-of-3 from 3-point range, with two dunks, an assist and a steal to tie for the game-high plus-minus with plus-36, alongside Egor Demin, for a BYU team that shot 58.5% from the field, including 18-of-36 from 3-point range but just 13-of-20 from the free-throw line.

“Getting Kanon out there was great,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “I thought he looked awesome in his first go at it.

“There’s definitely a lot we still need to learn,” the former Phoenix Suns assistant said, “but at the same time, I have a pretty good feel for what we want to do. We just haven’t necessarily seen it against a different opponent yet.”

Trevin Knell supplied 17 points with five 3-pointers for the Cougars, who open the 2024-25 regular season Tuesday against Central Arkansas (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+). Keba Keita pulled down a game-high seven rebounds to go with four steals and two blocked shots in 19 minutes.

Demin shot 0-for-3 from the field, but had a game-high 11 assists to go along with six rebounds and a pair of steals as he took on more of a ball handler/playmaking role with Dallin Hall one of two returning starters that did not play.

Absent Hall and Fousseyni Traore (as well as reserve point guard Trey Stewart), Young started a group of three newcomers in Demin, Catchings and Keita with returners Knell and Saunders.

Young said Hall and Traore were held out mostly for “precautionary” reasons while working with the team’s medical staff for undisclosed injuries, and that the duo is “hopeful” to be available for next week’s season opener. Stewart, meanwhile, is “probably a bit longer,” he added.

Without Hall, who started 51 of 68 games in his career at BYU, the 6-foot-9 Demin slid over to run the offense.

The Moscow, Russia, native who arrived at BYU after spending time with Real Madrid’s academy brought the ball up the court, set up his teammates, collected five rebounds, and finished the first half with eight assists — and 0 points on just 0-for-3 shooting.

Scoring was a role Demin didn’t need to play, though, against the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference team from Lakewood, Colorado.

“I think that’s just who he is,” Young said of Demin. “Right now without Dallin, he has a lot of the ball-handling responsibilities. He’s wired to play that way; at his size, some of the passes he was making — I would love to play with that guy, just stand in the corner, pull up and let it fly. I think that’s just who he is.

“I do want him to be a bit more aggressive and look to score. But they were putting two on the ball a lot with him, and he was making the right reads.”

Lincoln Cantrall led the visiting Cougars with 9 points on 3-of-5 3-point shooting as the visitors found the game more in the second half before giving up 51 after the break.

Catchings caught fire in the first half, scoring 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting including a pair of 3-pointers as BYU shot 57% from the field and held the visiting Cougars to 21% shooting en route to a 42-12 halftime lead.

“I thought our defense int he first half was suffocating,” said Young, before noting that “stat he liked the most” was BYU’s 24 assists on 31 made shots.

The second unit was powered by Elijah Crawford, Brody Kozłowski and Dawson Baker, who took just one shot attempt in 10 minutes in the first half.

Crawford led all bench players with 8 points on 3-of-3 shooting to go along with three rebounds and three assists before the break. The four-star freshman out of Brewster Academy finished with 9 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals, and Kozlowski had 3 points on 1-of-3 shooting, an assist and a steal in 14 minutes.

But Baker found his shot later, eventually connecting on 4-of-7 attempts including 3-of-6 from deep to finish with 12 points in his first game since shutting down the 2023-24 season after four games due to a foot injury.

His first experience playing more than 20 minutes in front of a student section that filled to the rafters was “awesome,” he said.

“You don’t really get exhibition games like this, where it’s packed,” Baker said. “That’s a shout out to Cougar Nation and the ROC. It was special.”