Kingston Flemings led four players in double figures to help No. 5 Houston pull away from BYU for a 73-66 win in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals Thursday in Kansas City.
Emanuel Sharp added 13 points, Joseph Tugler tallied 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds and Chris Cenac Jr. notched 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting for second-seeded Houston (27-5), which won its fourth straight game to return to the Big 12 semifinals for the third time in as many years in the league.
Houston will face No. 14 and third-seeded Kansas in the semis after the Jayhawks beat TCU 78-73 on Thursday.
Freshman sensation AJ Dybantsa racked up a game-high 26 points -- his 13th straight game with 20-plus points -- and Robert Wright III scored 15 and a game-high five assists for 10th-seeded BYU (23-11).
After Wright scored three straight points to cut the deficit to 59-58 with 6:52 left, Houston put the game away with a 12-3 run to take the first double-digit lead of the game for either team at 71-61 with 20 seconds left.
Sharp iced the game with six free throws in the last 33 seconds, making up for a 1-for-9 performance from the floor with a 10-for-10 showing from the charity stripe.
Houston got off to a strong start, jumping out to an 8-2 advantage as BYU missed its first six shots from the floor. That edge continued through the opening 10 minutes as Houston led 19-12 with 9:50 left behind an 8-for-13 shooting start.
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Trailing by eight with 7:37 left in the half, BYU finally came to life, breaking off a 7-0 run which began a larger 24-9 surge for a 41-34 lead with 28 seconds left in the half.
Dybantsa scored nine points during this surge -- over half of his game-high 16 first-half points -- and Aleksej Kostic hit back-to-back threes to turn a one-point deficit into a five-point lead.
Kalifa Sakho completed a three-point play in the final second to cut Houston's halftime deficit to 41-37.
Houston opened the second half on a 10-5 run to reclaim the lead, and the Cougars jumped ahead for good on an 8-2 surge behind four points from Mercy Miller.
BYU made just one field goal over a span of 6:53 in the middle of the second half and managed just five made field goals over the final 14:14, missing 16 of their final 21 shots to finish 41.2% from the floor.
Houston wasn't much better at 44.8% but made up for it with a 37-30 rebounding edge and a 19-10 advantage in second-chance points.
--Field Level Media