KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — AJ Dybantsa had 27 points in another brilliant Big 12 Tournament performance, Kennard Davis Jr. added 20 points, and No. 10 seed BYU beat seventh-seeded West Virginia 68-48 on Wednesday night to advance to the quarterfinal round.
Robert Wright III also had 11 points before a crowd that included BYU alum and Chiefs coach Andy Reid along with his quarterback, Patrick Mahomes — whose No. 16 Texas Tech plays seventh-ranked Iowa State in the first quarterfinal Thursday.
As for the Cougars (23-10), their second win in as many days earned them a quarterfinal matchup with fifth-ranked Houston.
Honor Huff had 17 points for West Virginia (18-14), which had beaten BYU a couple of weeks ago. Brenen Lorient finished with 11.
Dybantsa was downright dominant in the Cougars' first-round win over Kansas State on Tuesday night, pouring in 40 points — three off the single-game Big 12 Tournament record set by Texas Tech's Mike Singletary — to go with nine rebounds and six assists.
Nothing much changed against the Mountaineers.
Dybantsa gave BYU the lead for good with his bucket with 9:36 left in the first half, and that was just the start of the highlights. He scored on a myriad of Euro-step layups, pull-up jumpers and rim-rattling dunks. The most impressive came in the final minute of the half, when he stole the ball from Lorient and threw down a dunk while getting fouled.
The three-point play gave the Cougars a 31-23 at the break.
West Virginia was still within 47-42 after Chance Moore's put-back dunk with 8:02 to go. But Wright scored at the other end for BYU, launching a 10-0 run over the next five minutes that sent the Cougars into the quarterfinal round.
BYU lost to second-seeded Houston in its only meeting on Feb. 7 in Provo, Utah.
The Mountaineers await their NCAA Tournament fate on Selection Sunday.
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BYU forward Khadim Mboup (7) beats West Virginia forward DJ Thomas (5) to a rebound during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the second round of the Big 12 Conference tournament Wednesday, March 11, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Meta is raising the prospect of shutting down its social media services in New Mexico in response to a push by state prosecutors for fundamental changes to the company's platforms, including Instagram, to protect the mental health and safety of children.
The possibility emerged amid legal gamesmanship in the runup to a bench trial next week on allegations that Meta poses a public nuisance. It's the second phase of a case that already resulted in $375 million in civil penalties on a jury's determination that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
Prosecutors are asking the court to order a series of changes to child accounts on social media aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.
Meta executives have emphasized that the company continuously improves child safety and addresses compulsive social media use. The company says its being singled out among hundreds of apps that teens use.
In a court filing unsealed Thursday, Meta said it was unfeasible for the company to meet a proposed requirement for 99% accuracy in verifying that child users are at least 13 years old, among other demands.
“As a practical matter, this requirement effectively requires Meta to shut down its services — for all users in the state — or else comply with impossible obligations,” Meta said in the filing.
Such a shutdown across a population of 2.1 million residents in New Mexico could silence personal communication on Meta’s immensely popular platforms, which also include Facebook and WhatsApp, and also impact their use for commercial advertising.
By withdrawing from New Mexico, Meta would satisfy any concerns about harm to children, but the message could appear intentionally hostile and might lead to unintended consequences, said Eric Goldman, codirector of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law in California.
Goldman noted that Canadian authorities accused Facebook in 2023 of putting profits over safety after the platform blocked local news content during record-setting wildfires and evacuations. Facebook was responding to a newly enacted law that requires tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.
A Los Angeles jury last month found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services, validated longstanding concerns about the dangers of social media.
New Mexico’s case against Meta is the first to reach trial among more that 40 state attorneys general who have filed suit against the company on claims it contributes to a mental health crisis among young people. Most are pursuing remedies in U.S. federal court.
“I highly doubt that they’re going to be willing and able to turn the lights off for their product all over the country,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in an online news conference.
Torrez disputed Meta’s argument that proposed changes are impractical, describing “before times” in an ever-evolving social media landscape when “we didn’t have infinite scroll and we didn’t have auto-play.” Torrez, a Democrat running for reelection to a second term in November, said he won’t be “turning a blind eye to exploited children in the state of New Mexico because people have an advertising contract.”
Beyond the U.S., other countries have implemented — or are planning — a bevy of restrictions on children’s online activities, ranging from social media bans to requiring younger teens to link their accounts to a parent’s. New Mexico also is seeking child-guardian links in the suit against Meta, as well as a court-supervised child safety monitor to track improvements over time.
Goldman said there are some countries that Facebook “doesn’t directly support in part because it’s just not worth it to provide that custom instance.”
"The cost of maintaining the separate service is greater than any value from that territory,” he said. “And that could be the case with New Mexico as well.”
FILE - Visitors take photos at a sign outside Meta headquarters March 26, 2026, in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
FILE - A recording of Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's deposition is played for the jurors on March 4, 2026, in Santa Fe, N.M. (Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican via AP, Pool, File)
