LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Miami men’s basketball coach Jai Lucas admitted following his team’s 72-62 loss to Brigham Young at Thursday’s ESPN Events Invitational that he had never seen quite a shot-blocking exhibition like the one BYU’s Keba Keita put on.

The athletic 6-foot-8 Keita, a native of Bamkako, Mali, swatted seven Miami shots, five blocks coming in the first six minutes of the second half. BYU went on a 10-0 run during the stretch, as Miami, thanks to Keita’s presence, managed to make just 3 of 12 floor shots, and the spurt spelled the difference in the game.

BYU’s efforts were aided by a partisan crowd of Cougars’ fans. There were 4,276 fans in attendance at the StateFarm Field House at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports.

“No. 13 [Keita], I haven’t seen blocked shots like that,” Lucas said. “He gets seven blocks in a game, that’s a big difference. That’s a separator. It changed their whole defense when he’s able to protect the rim and do that.

“I think, in the first six minutes, they scored 20 points. There you go. That’s the difference. The way we’re built, we gotta play with more force around the rim.”

It was a career high for Keita and the most blocked shots in a BYU game since the Cougar’s 7-foot-6 center Shawn Bradley swatted 12 shots against Eastern Kentucky in 1990.

The Hurricanes started out well, matching BYU’s athletes run-for-run and jumping out to a 33-29 halftime lead. BYU coach Kevin Young said he noticed a lack of energy with his team in the first half.

“Our demeanor wasn’t great in the first half. I thought our guys were a little bit glazed over, honestly,” Young said. “I thought our demeanor in the second half was the biggest adjustment. Coach Lucas has put together a really physical team and we ended up going plus-6 on the glass in the second half from the first half. That’s where we were hurting.

“And then obviously what Keba did defensively was incredible.”

After the Hurricanes shot 42% in the first half, it dropped to 38% for the game as the Cougars ramped up the defensive effort, as well as, like Young said, crashed the boards and enjoyed a 42-39 rebound edge in the end.

“I thought we played good for 20 minutes, and now we gotta figure out how we can play good for 40,” Lucas said.

BYU was led by Kennard Davis in scoring with 18 points, and star freshman AJ Dybantsa had 16. Miami got 14 points from Malik Reneau, well below the Montverde product’s average of 21 points per game. Former Dr. Phillips standout Ernest Udeh Jr. had a Thanksgiving homecoming in Orlando, scoring six points with eight rebounds and a blocked shot.

Miami (5-2) struggled at the free-throw line, which is an area Lucas said his team cannot afford to struggle, given the physical offensive style of play he is trying to instill in the Hurricanes. Miami hit one of its first seven free-throw attempts and ended up 7 of 17 for the game (41%).

“We will continue to work at it and shoot it, but it’s a big part of who we are, getting fouled,” Lucas said. “We’re a team that shoots in the upper 20s of free throws, so only getting 17 free throws tonight kind of shows you our violence and our physicality wasn’t there. … We gotta be better at the line.”

BYU (5-1) will face the winner of the Dayton-Georgetown game in Friday’s ESPN Events Invitational Magic Bracket championship at 9:30 p.m.

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