Worthy of celebration: BYU ladies snap 4-game dropping skid with 1st Large 12 win

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PROVO — For BYU ladies’s basketball, Saturday afternoon was a purpose to rejoice.

The Cougars’ win over fellow Large 12 newcomer Cincinnati wasn’t all the time flashy, and star ahead Lauren Gustin was held with no double-double for simply the third time this season.

Kailey Woolston scored 12 factors with 5 rebounds, and Emma Calvert dropped her first profession double-double with 11 factors and 10 rebounds to go along with two assists and three blocks as BYU surged previous Cincinnati 68-58 to gather the Cougars’ first Large 12 win in program historical past.

Lauren Davenport additionally scored 11 factors for BYU (11-7, 1-4 Large 12), and Amari Whiting provided 10 factors, six rebounds and 4 assists. Gustin completed with 11 factors and 9 rebounds for a Cougars squad that shot 48.1% from the sector and assisted on 18-of-25 made subject targets.

“That is big. The women celebrated arduous within the locker room,” mentioned head coach Amber Whiting, with freshly sprayed moist hair following the postgame moments within the locker room. “However I couldn’t be extra happy with them. I advised them it might take everybody, they usually all got here collectively. I do not assume one particular person went astray; everybody purchased in, got here collectively, they usually received it finished.”

Malea Williams had 15 factors and 7 rebounds, and Jillian Hayes added 14 factors and eight boards for the Bearcats (9-7, 1-4 Large 12), who earned their first Large 12 win a couple of days prior on a game-winning putback with 0.5 seconds remaining towards UCF.

“Some video games within the preseason, I might come into the locker room to a variety of ‘meh’ on their faces,” Whiting mentioned. “So I might stand up and soar up and down, yell and scream and dance, as a result of successful is tough on the Division I degree and Large 12 is even more durable. I am unable to even categorical how slim the margin of error is. Once we get certainly one of these, we have to leap round, scream, and make it memorable, after which we’ll flip round and put together for Oklahoma State.”

The win snapped a four-game dropping skid for BYU, together with a 79-69 setback Wednesday at Houston — one other newcomer to the convention together with BYU and Cincinnati. 5 gamers scored in double figures, and Kaylee Smiler completed with 9 factors and 7 assists for a BYU crew that ran simply eight gamers deeper.

“The final two video games, it seems like we had been proper there,” Calvert mentioned. “We simply wanted a tiny bit extra, and I really feel like we introduced that at present. So lastly, we did it.”

BYU shot 53% from the sector within the second quarter, together with 5 3-pointers to take a 38-26 halftime lead. Woolston and Davenport every hit a pair of triples earlier than the break to raise the Cougars to the double-digit halftime benefit.

“BYU was simply phenomenal in that second quarter,” Cincinnati coach Katrina Merriweather mentioned of the first-half run. “I assumed we did a superb job of not letting them have imaginative and prescient on the basket, they usually simply saved plugging away.”

The introduced crowd of 1,786 followers — together with a larger-than-average scholar part presumably buoyed by the boys’s basketball crew’s highway journey to UCF — additionally performed a task, per Davenport.

“I give lots to the gang; when the gang feeds us, we feed off that vitality,” the Boston U. switch mentioned. “I assumed that was tremendous essential for us, after which we simply hit photographs to assist us preserve rolling.”

However Cincinnati did not go away. The Bearcats held BYU with no make till Gustin’s layup with 6:13 left within the third quarter, and minimize the deficit as shut as 40-35 on Brianna Byars’ jumper a half-minute prior.

The Bearcats matched BYU within the third quarter, pulling inside 4, 48-44. However Woolston drained a 3-pointer on the buzzer on an ideal help from Whiting to push the Cougars forward 51-44 with one quarter to play.

“These are robust. They’re robust as a result of, whereas we have folks enjoying level that are not level guards, I put them able to deal with the ball,” Merriweather mentioned. “That one was on me. These moments are arduous, nevertheless it’s more durable for them as a result of they arrive again and take a look at you all doughy eyed.”

Cincinnati shot simply 3-of-14 from the sector within the fourth quarter, together with 1-of-4 from deep, to BYU’s 6-of-12 to seal the win.

BYU hits the highway once more subsequent week for a midweek recreation Wednesday at Oklahoma State. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. MST on ESPN+ earlier than returning residence Saturday to host Texas Tech.

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